...or just class?

Gates in The Root. He comes off as an idiot.
And there’s a second police statement by a latino officer and there are already attempts to psychoanalyze him.. It reminds me of the response to Clinton's tears. Rationalism without facts, and without paying attention.

Maureen Dowd was right about John Edwards in the same way she was right about Clinton; because she paid attention not just to his words but to his performance. It would be more difficult to defend political commentary as theater criticism if those who were opposed to it actually paid attention to the the meanings of words as much as they claim. But as with Clinton when the words say things earnest rationalists don't want to hear they're ignored. How long is the list of articles, blogs posts and comments laced with bitter irony on the subject of Gates in "post-racial America" -"This is what happens to a black man in America!"- when he was arrested by a post-racial assortment of cops?

Posted elsewhere: If you have no patience with Zionists howling "Nazi" at every minor act of personal disrespect, and lets be clear I have none, why not the same with Gates? He’s a rich man who’s made his life explaining black people to white people. And in this context Jews are white, in other contexts not. He makes his living playing the victim card then giving his audience the opportunity through association with him to be designated righteous gentiles. Every time I hear his voice I cringe. Moral lectures from the striving, greedy petit bourgeois.
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The cops seem by the facts supplied in all accounts to have behaved like cops, which can be annoying. They're supposed to act like robots, it's not an easy thing to do. But they're paid to be robots serving law, not you.

Crooked Timber hosts a cop. Read the post and comments; including his.