July 31, 2009

The lesson from Thursday's "teachable moment" ...

When you are falsely accused of racism, don't apologize.

Here are headlines from WashingtonPost.com:
Obama's Backyard Summit
Officer says there was "no tension" at meeting with scholar, but there were no apologies either.

Beer Summit Goes Flat
Milbank:
It wasn't a cure for what ales us. | Q&A, noon

NYTimes.com:
Over Beers, No Apologies, but Plans to Have Lunch
President Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley met, drank and agreed to meet again.

(Are you taking notes, Dr. Watson?)

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

57 comments:

l'art du cum f'art said...

I really don't know what Obama expected to get out of this.

What was his endgame for all this?

Anonymous said...

NYT said:
"President Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley met, drank and agreed to meet again."

Did they notice V.P. Biden sitting there!

Garland said...

Watson's old, and would have no future career either way. But consider Summers; would he have his swell little gig right now if he had held firm? No, he'd be done.

J said...

Farsical.

Jeff said...

well, I bet Obama planned this to help lessen the probability of a prolonged lawsuit by Gates.

After all of this, it's hard to believe that Gates will take this to the courts. So perhaps Obama is successful in that respect.

dearieme said...

"President Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley": why was Gates's title not used? O's and Crowley's were.

As for Jim Watson: schoolboys might cheer; apparently bullies may be cowards.

l said...

Obama needs to bring OJ and Mark Fuhrman together.

Anonymous said...

Laser has a valid point. The US is different than say South Africa in that a black prez does not immediately translate into widespread dispossession of and ethnic cleansing of whites. Before Obama Gates would have been off to court in an instant. But now that may damage is black ethnic pal, Obama, so the game changes. Funny how that little detail in itself shows this is purely just about racial spoils and has nothing to do with personal rights. Of course as black power becomes ever more entrenched, eventually people like Obama and Gates can give up the farce and just throw Cowley in jail. The endgame of course is Mugabe where blacks can live out all their fantasies on whites.

Anonymous said...

Lunch? What's next, going to the movies together? Catching a ballgame?

Anonymous said...

Obama is trying to bore us into not caring about his racist gaffe.

It's time for equality.

Anonymous said...

The media isn't burying the bodies and whitewashing this per their usual Pravda MO. This time it's different. This time it's personal.

The Gates and the Philly Valley Swim Club incidents deeply disturb the SWPL journos and their elite fellow-travelers. Obots thought their ascension in the Party Organ was assured by fiercely parroting the PC line, voting for Hopey Change and aggressively publically lynching PC heretics. But if PC Party functionaries in good standing like Crowley and Duesler can suddenly be forced into show trials for self-criticism and stripped of title and lands, no SWPL is safe from purging.

Duesler and wife cooperated with State demands and self-criticized. They are being sued, will probably lose their swim club and more in the rough justice for PC transgressors in our courts. They will be forever air brushed in the public mind as evil racists crackas and their entire lives as multi-culti peace activists and O supportering SWPLs are erased due one slip of the PC mask.

Crowley did not self-confess to being part of the inherent racism in the system as a white cop busting a black man in his own home. He is elevated for standing on his principles rather than being crushed by the party machine.

Crowley was extremely fortunate to have options the Duesler's didn't have:

- Cop with support of multi-cult officers, many witnesses and strong union support

- A photo capturing embarrassed muli-culti cops trying to calm down a crazy yelling race-baiting Gates

- The POTUS stepping in and bringing national media exposure that revealed the anatomy of a race hustle to the masses in the middle.

SWPLs realize they are 99.999% more likely to suffer the fate of Duesler rather than Crowley and it's frightening.

stari_momak said...

From the NYT

Mr. Biden was able to draw on his credibility with blue-collar, labor union America and his roots in Scranton, Pa.,

I can't decide if this is hipster irony or just plan bs.

Anonymous said...

you really expect two black guys to apologize to a white? especially someone like gates who makes his living race hustling?
This mulatto elite (and gates is clearly high yellow) wants to dominate us, not live peaceibly with us.

Jonathan said...

Good for Crowley. But he should not have participated in this farcical P.R. stunt in the first place. Better to let the facts speak for themselves.

Florida resident said...

I was very pleasantly surprised, how coherent was the statement by Sgt. James Crowley during his press-conference, how well he kept himself. The manner he presented himself was exraordinary: smart and dignified, not at all intimidated by arrogant correspondents. I could see that, even being in his favor from the beninning. If you did not watch that press-conference, try to find it somewhere.
Your F.r.

Bert Millicrisp said...

When you are falsely accused of racism, don't apologize.

When you are rightfully accused of racism, still don't apologise!

PeterW said...

Yeah, this heightens his image as the magesterial uniter of the races, despite the fact that nothing of note was actually agreed upon. Got to give it to Obama, he deflected this pretty classily.

OneSTDV said...

Does Gates still think the arrest was a racist act by Crowley? If so, that probably would have made the event rather awkward.

Anonymous said...

"Farsical."

One of the funnier Freudian slips I've seen this week; Israelis just can't get bombing Iran out of their brains for a nanosecond, no matter what the subject of discussion.

Crowley should have considered not going, or counter offered to meet Gates and Obama separately and one on one on his own turf, an Irish pub; but as a public servant he's limited in what he can say and do. Turf matters, and so does being outnumbered. Good to see Crowley stand his ground though.

John Anello said...

It was a photo-op. Obama needed to regain his image as a post-racial uniter, thus stablizing his waning popularity.

Harry Baldwin said...

This was a pointless bit of theater. Last week Obama blurted out what he thought of law enforcement in this country. He was obviously speaking his mind. So now he wants to have a beer and smooth things over; fine, but people know what he really thinks.

An analogy: suppose, during an argument, a husband tells his wife he hasn't found her sexually attractive for years. He immediately regrets this, buys her flowers and a card, says he didn't mean it, plans a romantic getaway, etc. Is she ever going to believe he didn't mean what he said?

Anonymous said...

What was his endgame for all this?

Free PR? He makes conciliatory gesture and looks like the post-racial healer-uniter. All for free: he didn't apologize, and he did exactly nothing for anyone.

Not that it was some big stroke of genius, of course, since only the really dim will think anything of it except (at best), "hmh? Odd."

~Svigor

l said...

Obama might have a busy "teachable weekend," if this DC cop is black:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/29/disorderly-conduct-conver_n_246794.html

Florida resident said...

http://www.breitbart.tv/cordial-and-productive-cambridge-police-sgt-crowley-says-no-one-apologized/

Anonymous said...

Is there any indication that the
content of the visit was recorded by the consent of the three participants? After all, there has
been threatened legal action, etc.
Many lawyers, carefully rehearsing a client, would consent to such a visit but only if a record was kept, accessible to each of the
participants?

rob said...

Budweiser, the king of teachable moments.

I think Gatesgate got under Obama's skin so much that he forgot his facade. Obama doesn't have an endgame, at least not any more. He tries to be cautious and circumspect when he talks. Most of the time he learns enough about the major sides of issues to project empathy to everyone involved.

A black professor being arrested for hassling a cop got to him. He didn't bother to get info on Crowley before talking. Now, what can he do?

If he tries to sacrifice Crowley, white liberals will see that nothing at all can protect them from accusations of racism. It'd scream that the charge itself is proof. At least with guilty till proven innocent, there's a chance to prove your innocent.

Also, there must be a fairly large fraction of black people who are want fewer criminals in their communities, but won't admit it around whites.

If Obama repudiates Gates like Rev. Wright, would blacks forgive that sort of thing twice? Would white Democrats? Uncle Tombama has a bit of ring to it(Copyright me)

Maybe he beleived whatever story Gates told him, and thought it'd be a slam dunk for showing that irrational racism is alive. Then he could push even harder for whatever remediations he wants.

Anonymous said...

This is such an obvious thing I have no idea why so many people apologize. If you commit a crime, you always plead not guilty. Same thing if you get accused of something. Anyone who thinks an apology is effective (they may work on an interpersonal level but not a group level) is a moron. I agree, Dr. Watson did himself in. He just needed to stick by his guns and really argue his point. Maybe that would have helped him AND the rest of us non-NAMs out.

Melykin said...

I got a chuckle out of this:

Milbank: "...Crowley's choice was worst of all. Blue Moon Belgian White? At a multiracial summit? At least he didn't order an Extra Pale Ale...."

Anonymous said...

Did they notice V.P. Biden sitting there!

He was drinking NA beer, so its almost as if he wasn't actually participating.

Anonymous said...

In this sad day and age being called a "racist" is the Victorian era equivalent of being called a homosexual. The accused is expected to back down in horror. But if you stand your ground and refuse to be bullied the attacker has little ammunition left. Never "pull a Watson". Stand firm.

Anonymous said...

The problem here is that Crowley _did_ something that is disputed to be racist, and the actual facts are not clearly known. Watson _said_ something that some people consider prima facie racist. Watson didn't back down for quite some time, but the attacks were unrelenting and his apology was a calculated attempt to cut his losses. Which worked. The attacks shifted from "unrepentant racist" which basically would accelerate until he was on the leve of the Ku Klux Klan, to "contrite racist," society has made an example of him, he may never be looked at the same way again but we can move on. Watson got himself into an unwinnable situation, but what Crowley went through (I don't believe he acted racist at all based on what I have heard) was very plausibly deniable as racist.

robert61 said...

@ stari_momak

"Mr. Biden was able to draw on his credibility with blue-collar, labor union America and his roots in Scranton, Pa..."

I can't decide if this is hipster irony or just plain bs.


It's bad writing with a BS assist. The reporter was thinking, "Hey, another white guy - even steven!" and tried to overload the evenness metaphor: "Hey, Joe Biden's kind of working class, if you press his attributes a little, just like Sgt. Crowley - even more even steven!" The result is so absurd that it makes you look for the irony.

l said...

Obama should invite Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu over for O'Douls.

Anonymous said...

I one time heard a saying about sailing that went as such: you cannot control the ocean, you can only master it. There are forces out there that are stronger than any one of us.

Right now Obama has the upper hand on debating race in this society. Not only does he get great press but the media goes out of it's way to portray blacks in a glowing light even when it is perposterous. That is slipping away. Thanks to things such as talk radio and the Ricci / Crowley incidents white America is starting to come out of its long silence.

The last thing liberals / Obama wants to have happen is that they lose mastery of the debate. The consequences of losing will be a disaster for them.

Big Bill said...

Blacks will always vote for Obama. We all know this.

What Obama needs to maintain is the white vote and Asian vote and Mexican vote if he is to be reelected.

I have to admit I am more than a bit pleased about this.

Instead of sucking up to blacks, the current administration (and the black elite generally) has to suck up to whites.

If they play their race card like they always do, we can now trump them, and Obama is going to have to smooth things over.

Sgt Crowley played this one pitch perfect. Be nice with the famous black folks, don't grovel, don't react.

When they blink and desperately beg for a photo op to get the political nightmare off the front page of a thousand papers, go sit quietly, let them spin their meeting, take their photos, and then, when asked, state the plain facts: "no, they didn't apologize."

Go read TheRoot.com for some serious Gatesian racial gas-baggery about the Gates/Obama/Crowley summit.

Obama told the boy to bury the hatchet, and Gates is desperately trying to do so without looking the total fool.

Bugzilla said...

The point that is being missed is that Gates and/or Obama are being bested by a blue collar flatfoot. Given his foot sure performance Sgt. Crowley is an exceptionaly shrewd man or he is a genuine straight shooter. In either case Crowley is playing the cards he has been dealt better than a Harvard professor and the POTUS. Fancy that.

stari_momak said...

Obama needs to bring OJ and Mark Fuhrman together.

Ef -in brilliant.

stari_momak said...

Obama directs FBI to concentrate resources on the hunt for Nicole Brown's real killer.

Truth said...

"In either case Crowley is playing the cards he has been dealt better than a Harvard professor and the POTUS. Fancy that."

Really?

Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?

Anonymous said...

"Obama directs FBI to concentrate resources on the hunt for Nicole Brown's real killer."

That would be an incredible Onion article.

Anyway, I think we should all be really glad this happened. If Obama had waited a little bit longer, managed to suppress his black rage and pretended to focus on real issues, he could have gotten away with something like this. But his impatience (low future time orientation?) got the best of him. Instead of waiting for an easy mark, he took a wild swing at the first guy to come along. Officer Crowley just happened to be the ordinary simpleton who couldn't help but observe that the post-racial President has no clothes.

John Seiler said...

The Gates Incident will end as these things usually do: with more power to the government.

During the Gates meeting with Crowley, Obama, and Biden, Obama said: "I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode."

Translation: To make sure he and his fellow Democrats don’t lose the cop vote in 2010 and 2012, he’ll vastly increase federal spending on cops, thus further federalizing America’s “local” police.

And he’ll increase the powers cops have to harass and brutalize ordinary citizens. After all, he’ll never have to face those cops, nor will Biden. And Gates now will be immunized from future cop assaults.

The rest of us will be left to cringe and submit to the polizei in an ever more subservient manner.

Bugzilla said...

"Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?"

Are you always this obtuse, Truth? Crowley was sucker punched by two professional race baiters and came out with his job and dignity intact. I score that as a win.

Anonymous said...

"Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?"

You people do really love trying to lord your unearned privileges over the rest of us, don't you? As if it's something to be proud of?

Here's something you might not know. While Gates is riding his tricycle around Martha's Vineyard, everyone else there is laughing at him. He knows, deep down, that like 99% of white collar blacks he has done nothing to earn his status and he lives every moment afraid that he will be exposed for the fraud he is. That's why he is so concerned with the trappings of success, and why he had that childish temper tantrum with Crowley.

So if you are really asking who is living the good life, it seems pretty obvious to me. Gates may have a nicer bed, but it's Crowley who sleeps peacefully with the knowledge that he's a self-made man. Uneasy lies the shoulder that bears a chip.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Hillary. Sorry Sarah. Your dreams of becoming the first female president will never be realized.

Just as Bill Clinton was the first black president, Barack Obama is the first woman president. Well, OK, maybe not woman, but maybe 12-year-old girl.

Exhibit A is Obama's response to the faux, planted question about Professor Gates' arrest.

"...I don't know all the facts...I don't know, not having been there and not having seen all the facts...the Cambridge Police acted stupidly..."

I can't imagine a U.S. president saying anything as gossipy, juvenile, self-contradictory and prejudiced as this. But I can imagine a 12-year-old girl saying something like this.

Exhibit B is Obama's response to the question about how he would define victory in Afghanistan.

Truth said...

"but it's Crowley who sleeps peacefully with the knowledge that he's a self-made man."

A self made...civil servant. Wow.

I had one of my patented snarky remarks all written here but then I went back and erased it. That one is just too good by itself.


Damn it, what the hell I just can't resist!

Yeah, T. Boone Pickens must turn 3 different shades of green when he thinks about what Crowley has accomplished!

can't believe my eyes said...

"but it's Crowley who sleeps peacefully with the knowledge that he's a self-made man."

A self made...civil servant. Wow."


Yet another predictably ridiculous statement by "Truth", but an astonishing admission of what he really thinks about blacks, as I shall imminently point out.

A person is "self-made" by the content and quality of their actions and intentions, not by who employs them.
Unless you truly believe that no quality is expected of civil servants , and they being cared for by the government?
Well, perhaps we finally have truth from "truth" as he sees it. "Civil service" is the major employment venue for blacks in any metropolis.
It is, indeed, the status of any President of the United States, and the Attorney General.

Andrew Ryan said...

Does anybody know why Biden drank a non-alcoholic beer? Pretty curious. The only person I know who drinks them is a reformed alcoholic.

Anonymous said...

"T. Boone Pickens must turn 3 different shades of green when he thinks about what Crowley has accomplished!"

PPPPPPTTTT

Crowley stared down the President of the United States and the World's Most Famous Professional Black. Pretty bold and independent, that is to say, self-made, for a mere civil servant.

T. Boone went lookin' to gummint for handouts in the form of tax breaks / subsidies for his wind farm boondoggle.

Anonymous said...

The only relevant story in this ludicrous media farce is that the President of the United States, with all the political power in America and most of the world, couldn't stare down a random cop. Al-Qaeda and other terrorists don't give a damn about American racial issues but they now know that Obama is a wimp that can be easily intimidated by anyone who doesn't drink the Kool-Aid and proclaim him Messiah.

Big Bill you are right that Obama has to be careful not to alienate whites if he wants to be reelected. People around here seem to think that he's planning to establish Symbionese Liberation Army policies but if white middle class voters abandon him he's sunk.

Zylonet said...

--Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?--

Rather tribal of you to judge a man's worth by his herd of goats.

Truth said...

I'm not judging anyone, I'm stating a veritable fact.

Sideways said...

The problem here is that Crowley _did_ something that is disputed to be racist, and the actual facts are not clearly known. Watson _said_ something that some people consider prima facie racist. Watson didn't back down for quite some time, but the attacks were unrelenting and his apology was a calculated attempt to cut his losses. Which worked. The attacks shifted from "unrepentant racist" which basically would accelerate until he was on the leve of the Ku Klux Klan, to "contrite racist," society has made an example of him, he may never be looked at the same way again but we can move on. Watson got himself into an unwinnable situation, but what Crowley went through (I don't believe he acted racist at all based on what I have heard) was very plausibly deniable as racist.

This is correct. Watson would not have been better of if he had not apologized. The only way he could have prevailed would have been for people to be convinced that he was correct, and there's virtually no chance that happens between now and his death.

The situation here was much different, and open to interpretations that people could really believe were not about race.

Prole said...

"In either case Crowley is playing the cards he has been dealt better than a Harvard professor and the POTUS. Fancy that."

Really?

Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?
___


WOW, what unbelievable class prejudice on your part, 'Truth'!!!

So do you by any chance fancy yourself a 'Talented Tenther'? ;-)

Anonymous said...

WOW, what unbelievable class prejudice on your part, 'Truth'!!!

So do you by any chance fancy yourself a 'Talented Tenther'? ;-)



I hear crickets...

Truth said...

I don't know that I'm particularly talented, except at this, but at my specialty I'm a whole lot more rarefied than the top 10%.

Realidad said...

"In either case Crowley is playing the cards he has been dealt better than a Harvard professor and the POTUS. Fancy that."

Really?

Come Monday, which one will be back to writing jaywalking tickets?
__

Well, regardless, it's nice to see a WORK-ing class White guy punk two super-arrogant Mulattos! :-)

Anonymous said...

"Well, regardless, it's nice to see a WORK-ing class White guy punk two super-arrogant Mulattos! :-)"
__

'Super-Arrogant Mulattos' -- that's rich!

First there were the "NAM's",

...then came the "SAM's"!

LOL