Newswise — The recent arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has received much attention in the media and more recently even from President Obama. Nathaniel Norment, Jr., associate professor and chair of African American Studies at Temple, offered his analysis of the events.
"If this is the first time Professor Gates has been arrested, after having lived in America for roughly 60 years, he is quite unique," said Norment. "What Gates experienced has been experienced by most black men and is happening somewhere right now."
According to Norment, we have to look at an event like this within its historical context. "It emerges from the historical depictions and mythology surrounding the portrayal of black men as savages and beasts during enslavement. You see it in a film such as Birth of a Nation in 1915. This is the historical context that comes into play in terms of whites shaping the image of the black male," he said.
"His being a professor has brought this kind of discrimination into the spotlight, but the bottom line is he's a black man in America — that's who you are, that's how you're viewed," he said. "This happens to black males of all ages, social and economic class, occupations and educational backgrounds."
Norment referred to two recent cases in Philadelphia when Bonnie Sweeten faked her own abduction by claiming she and her daughter had been kidnapped by two mythical black assailants and the shooting of a black undercover policeman by another white policeman because of "racial association and stereotype."
Again and again, society is quick to assign criminality to a black male, he said. "It is not just a problem with law enforcement, but how the mythology of the black male as criminal has permeated our culture and institutions."
With the election of Barak Obama, many people have begun to talk about a post-racial society, but, according to Norment, nothing has really changed in the lives of ordinary people, whether in relation to crime or educational opportunities or economic status.
According to Norment, the bigger question is how to prevent this from happening again to any black male. He believes it comes down to dialogue about racism and how it affects blacks and whites. "A law is not going to resolve this, but individuals committed to equal justice for all people can. We have to look deep into ourselves and change our reactions to each other," he said.
"Just as was stated in the 1968 Kerner Commission report, we remain today two nations — blacks and whites, separate and unequal," said Norment.
Education can definitely play a role. "If Americans — blacks and whites — knew that, even prior to Obama, great African American scholars have contributed to the shaping of American political arena, if there were widespread knowledge about African American history and the contributions African Americans have made, that would help change peoples' attitudes and perceptions."
Norment is the editor of The African American Studies Reader (Carolina Academic Press, 2007) and The Addison Gayle Jr. Reader (University of Illinois Press, 2009).
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