ReligionDispatches.org

While watching the fiasco surrounding the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. unfold in the media, it became more and more apparent the some things in society would never change. There are those who would conjecture that this incident was racially motivated. But those politics don’t really warrant my immediate attention. What garners my immediate attention is the effect of arrogance and mediocrity that has made this incident extremely relevant in the minds of Americans, Blacks, White, Asians, and other critically thinking citizens of the world. The arrest of Professor Gates brings something even more disturbing to light. His arrest provides evidence the majority population in this country, as in other countries, never wants to be seen as incorrect or wrong. More importantly, if they have to be called out as wrong, they definitely don’t want to be called out members of a minority population.