Word: professor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gates, an African American studies professor who has earned 50 honorary degrees for his work and is arguably Harvard's most renowned black scholar, was arrested last Thursday at his home for disorderly conduct. Police reports and statements from Gates' lawyer suggest that police officers, investigating a tip of a possible break-in at Gates' Cambridge home, got into a confrontation with the 58-year-old professor, who was returning home from a trip to China and forced his way through a jammed front door with a car driver's help...
...Cambridge authorities and prosecutors agreed to drop the charge on Tuesday, saying that the incident was "regrettable and unfortunate" but not one that should be viewed as demeaning to the "character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department...
Students interviewed were wary of passing judgment on police or the professor without more definitive information, but several said that the professor had been treated unfairly. Kyle A. Martin '11, a proctor at Harvard for the summer, said "it certainly would appear to me to be some sort of racial bias against Professor Gates exhibited by the police officer." And Amaka C. Uzoh '11, an intern at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, said that she sympathized with Gates and that he did not deserve to face charges from police...
...This is not all that surprising that this would happen to an African American man, and even to somebody of Skip Gates' stature," said James H. Sidanius, a psychology and African American studies professor whose area of study includes institutional discrimination and group conflict. "These things happen all too often, where African Americans are disproportionally stopped by police more than others, disproportionally detained for arrest, and disproportionately found guilty and sentenced to prison...
Walter Johnson, another African American studies professor, wrote in an e-mailed statement that the charge of disorderly conduct in one's own home was absurd and that "the structure of ideas and institutions which render such action commonsensical in this society are appalling." And Michèle Lamont, a sociology and African American studies professor who specializes in American race relations, called the arrest "egregious" and said that the incident helped expose the need for broader racial dialogue not only within the Harvard community but also in the broader Cambridge area...