together with black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white police Sgt. James Crowley was less about reaching for racial enlightenment than about helping Obama tamp down hard feelings, change the subject and get Americans to focus on what he wants to do in office. “We agreed to move forward,” Crowley said after the Thursday evening gathering, adding that he and Gates also “agreed to disagree.” Gates said in his statement “we've learned that we can have our differences without demonizing one another” over an episode he hoped would raise sympathy “for the daily perils of policing, on the one hand, and for the genuine fears about racial profiling, on the other hand.” In a nod to all that's facing Obama, his friend, Gates added, “it turns out that the president just might have a few other things on his plate as well.” Obama's approval ratings are sagging and his proposed health care overhaul is a momentous struggle. His snap judgment that Cambridge, Massachusetts, police “acted stupidly” in the Gates-Crowley confrontation proved a distraction that, if anything, may have sharpened a racial divide. The invite was meant in part to counter that. The press was given a few minutes to film the meeting but kept far enough away that no chatter could be heard. Obama has dealt with race at calibrated, infrequent and powerful moments. His historic achievement as the first black president is held out as the obvious and most shining testament to racial progress even as he highlights persistent inequalities and prejudices. It was his seemingly impromptu dip into roiling waters that he's trying to get out of now, with the dog days of August nigh, Congress scattering next week and Americans making tracks to the beach. “It's easy to dismiss this as a photo-op,” said Karen Finney, former Democratic National Committee spokeswoman, “but we can't know what impact the image of these men sitting together may have on someone.” Vesla Weaver, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, who studies race and criminal justice, said the meeting missed a chance to deal seriously with the problem of blacks being disproportionately pulled over by police. Blacks and whites Americans have vastly different views of the fairness of the US criminal justice system, Weaver said, “and those gulfs are not going to be mended by the individual and episodic nature of this meeting.” Both protagonists have defended their behavior in the Cambridge dustup at Gates' home. But in agreeing to come - one does not turn down a president's invitation lightly - they signaled willingness to be players in a reconciliation drama. The White House said in advance that the moment would no doubt be “poignant,” a sure sign everything was being managed to achieve poignancy. “Sure it's a gimmick,” said damage-control specialist Eric Dezenhall,” but Obama's gift is making gimmicks look visionary. “In fact, the whole post-racial routine is a gimmick,” he went on. Dezenhall compared it to the “Mission Accomplished” banner that symbolized a premature Iraq war victory celebration for President George W. Bush. “Only it works better, largely because people want it to work; they like the whole theater of healing.” A striking 80 percent of respondents were aware of Obama's comments about the Gates-Crowley dispute in a Pew Research Center poll out Thursday. The president's approval ratings, down overall, slipped markedly among whites in the days after Obama weighed in on the dispute: to 46 percent from 53 percent before he spoke on the matter. In the same period, his approval went up among racial minorities and Hispanics after his comments - to 74 percent from 63 percent before he talked about it. The July 16 arrest of Gates for disorderly conduct in his own home prompted the debate over racial profiling and police conduct. Crowley said Gates was belligerent when police showed up to investigate a report of a possible break-in, after Gates forced his own door open. Gates said police presumed a robbery because he was black. Charges against him were dropped. Absent hard evidence on both sides, did whites reflexively support the sergeant because he's white? Did blacks cry foul because of a hair-trigger sensitivity about racism? After the visit, there are still missions to be accomplished.
