Sugar’s Take

Dear Molly,

I believe the ‘Beer Summit’ (still trippin’ off the name) was President Obama’s way of keeping his finger on the pulse of race relations in America. Obama used “good old boy” methods to bring two very different kinds of people together. I mean, who can really stay angry over a beer in a lovely place like the White House lawn.

I really liked the restrictions put on the media so these gentlemen could have a meaningful conversation without too much scrutiny or misinterpretation. And I could tell from the body language that President Obama brought his nonjudgmental ear to the table, despite his previous assessment of the situation.

Two things bothered me about the summit: 1) the irrelevant banter regarding beer choices 2) the blank response to the summit given by the Cambridge police officer (who I think was annoyed by a smart mouthed Gates). If anything, the beer companies benefited from the free publicity and the real problem seemed a bit ignored.

As far as building relations between African Americans and any city’s finest, we still have a very long way to go before Radio Raheem is drinking beers with Officer Krupke. Between the apparent frustration of follow-all-orders police and Black folks’ perpetual struggle to upgrade from second class citizenship, there seems to be no real resolutions made in this matter. Police have been treating people, Black men in particular, worse than a dog in a Michael Vick kennel since the days of the patty rollers. Y’all remember the Black football player who lost his mother-in-law’s last moments to a police power trip.

To me, the real question is why did that woman, who knows a Black man lives on her street, felt the need to call the cops at the sight of an obviously familiar Black person in her neighborhood? What’s up with that?!!

Ed’s Take

Peace Sista Molly,

Oscar Grant was murdered execution style by cops in Oakland.  An unarmed Amadou Diallo was shot and brutally killed at the hands of New York City’s Finest.  Abner Louima was sodomized with a plunger by the boys in blue.  Outside the patronizing eye of the media, brothers weather supposed “isolated” incidents on a daily basis. Even I know all to well the bone deep fear of unmitigated police brutality.  I don’t think a six back of beer would placate my continued outrage of being treated as a citizen third class.

Sugar and I held our own summit of sorts.   One day we traded late night kitchen folktales about our lives as educated negroes– with three degrees between us –battling every day black man blues over sweet tea (my drink of choice) and Red Stripe (Gates’ and Sugar’s libation) as we waited for racism and injustice to end.  And just as I suspected, centuries of warranted cultural mistrust did not dissipate with every little sip we took.

Sometimes you got call a spade a spade. Sergeant James Crowley was drunk with power when he arrested Dr. Henry Louis Gartes, Jr. and acted just as stupidly as President Obama initially declared he did.  Though many have over dosed on the red kool aid of “Post Obama Racial Progress,” skirmishes like the one on Gates’ front porch serve as a resounding wake up call that white supremacy is still in the oppression business.  Most importantly, Crowley’s actions exhibited the same historic egotism of his forefathers, one which prefers it’s negroes non-threatening and shining America’s shoes.

Obama gets an A for effort but an F in execution.  The losers in the beer summit are freedom fighters /activists who call for “real” solutions and legislation around unchecked racism and rouge cops. The winners are surely the alcohol companies who laughed all the way to bank at the free advertisement sanctioned by the leader of the free world.  We gotta stop putting band-aids on brain tumors. Get free or die trying.