Robots and Racism

I'm dusting off 16 months of inactivity here, so bear with me....

Since the last blog, many news-worthy events have taken place:

Tim Russert, who is mentioned/cited many times throughout this blog, passed away in June 2008; Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was elected president in November 2008; Sarah Palin, 2008 GOP VP nominee, just resigned as Governor of Alaska; and the country is still going through the worst economic uppercut since the Great Depression (although the NYSE is, at least, back over 9,000).

Here are two articles to read as per another recent news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_harvard_scholar

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8168313.stm


Here is my response to the situation, particularly to the second article (BBC) posted above. I originally posted these as comments on another web site.

Some observations in response to the BBC article:

1 - It's amusing how the "calibrat[ion]" comments haven't made much news, unlike the "stupid" comments. Granted, one was during a live national audience, and one was not; that said, where is the news coverage on this?


2 - Why is it that the BBC has to be the easiest source to find about this? Why not any American press? Hmmmm....


3 - Perhaps it's because the president didn't actually say anything of value here! Here's the direct quotation, as per the BBC News article:

"Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt Crowley specifically," Mr Obama said.

"I could have calibrated those words differently," he added.

What does that first paragraph even mean? What was "ratchet[ed]" up? Doesn't that expression usually refer to something being FIXED, and not further complicated/damaged? Maybe he was regarding his phone call to the officer? I don't know.


4 - And really --- I could have calibrated those words differently ? Is the president a cyborg? Obama Five is alive! (Fellow children of the 1980s will likely get that movie reference.) Did reporters next ask the president if John Connors was safe from harm?

All kidding aside, is that really supposed to be an apology? If I shoot someone dead, then say the next day that I probably should have used a water gun instead of a semi-automatic firearm, should the victim's family accept that as compunction/recompense?

Sorry, Mr. President, but your "apology" DOES NOT COMPUTE.


5 - "...I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt Crowley specifically."

Well, decide for yourself. These were Obama's exact words from Wednesday night:

"This still haunts us. Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home. What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."
(source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_harvard_scholar)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, when asked if the president wished to revise those comments, said this on Thursday:

"Let me be clear. [President Obama] was not calling the officers stupid, okay? He was ensuring – I think, again, denoting that at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that."
(source: http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/07/24/does-obama-regret-saying-the-police-acted-stupidly-nope/)

So he wasn't calling the officer stupid, just racist? Or, more like it, he wasn't apologizing at all.

Sure, the president allegedly had a conversation with the officer, and even said some kind things about the man, after the fact. But what's still missing is a public apology.

I understand it must be difficult for a president to do this publicly (when not for political gain/posturing/pandering; e.g., like "apologizing" for slavery through Congress, though not in the form of legislation). But what separates this incident is that Obama did indeed directly antagonize specific individuals (the Cambridge PD, particularly those involved with the Gates arrest) publicly—before the appropriate facts were even released.

He knowingly and willingly---and publicly---damaged the character of specific individuals without merit. This, I believe, merits a public apology.

If he felt it appropriate to slander them before the press, he should have the backbone to apologize in similar fashion. Even if he had said he "should have calibrated" his words, instead of just that he "could have"—that would have been basic acknowledgment.

To me, this sounds like another classic case of "I'm not sorry, I'm just sorry I got caught."