May 20, 2025
We’re Living Barack Obama’s Racial Legacy In Real Time
By Vince Coyner
Obama’s legacy started early in his presidency. Not quite in office for six months, Obama showed his hand with his characterization that “The police acted stupidly” in reference to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates a professor at Harvard who, locked out of his house, broke in. A neighbor, not recognizing Gates, called 911. The police arrived, things didn’t go well, and Gates was arrested.
When asked about race and the incident a week later, Obama responded:
I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home, and, number three, 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.
Without the facts, Obama stated the police acted stupidly and implied that racism might have played a role. Nothing, however, about Gates’ reported “loud and tumultuous behavior.” For Obama, it was just racism and police misbehavior.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/05/we_re_living_barack_obama_s_racial_legacy_in_real_time.html
