>>>One thing I wonder is what is the deal with this neighbor? She lives within eyesight of a world famous scholar, a Harvard professor, and doesn't recognize him? He's just "a black man"? OTOH, that definitely sounds like Boston.
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>>Where did the "He's just "a black man" come from?
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>snip
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>That was reported in numerous places. (Which doesn't guarantee it's true, I know). Here is one of them --
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>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/21/national/main5177232.shtml
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>Officers responded to the home Gates rents from Harvard after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry," according to a police report.
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>More facts continue to emerge. The cab driver who had driven Gates home from the airport and helped him push the door open was Moroccan, so is probably not black by most people's definition. More significantly, the woman who called it in was not a neighbor. She lives in Malden, several towns over from Cambridge, and works near Gates's house. That seems a lot more plausible to me. The way it was initially reported just didn't make sense. I know what my neighbors look like and I'm sure you do, too.

It doesn't make it racist though. Two black men is a physical description. Just like 5'8", slim, blue eyes, brown t-shirt, etc. If you are reporting a possible crime, you give as much description as you can to help the police identify them. It is not racist to report the skin color. It would be ridiculous to tell the police everything but the skin color. How on earth are police supposed to do their job without knowing as much as they can? If the same crime were reported and it was two white men, you would expect the observer to report 'two white men' in order to accurately describe them as much as possible. It didn't appear racist at all to me. If she reported two men and when the police arrived, there were four men in the neighborhood, two white and two black, and all started to run, whom should they chase? If your child is abducted and you report it to the police, don't you want every single possible description to go out? If you white and they don't report white, then how will they identify your child?

Since it has been reported that his home was broken into not long ago, I'm still surprised that he wasn't appreciative of the police showing up instead of going off on them. Now THAT was stupid.