It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America’s most prominent black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it’s not just another episode of profiling — it’s a signpost on the nation’s bumpy road to equality. If this man can be taken away by police officers from the porch of his own home, what does it say about the treatment that average blacks can expect in 2009? — Jesse Washington, AP National Writer [In Jim Mora voice]: Profiling??? You kidding me? PRO-filing?!??! “Profiling” implies an absence of facts or evidence. It means “I’m targeting you for suspicion simply because you’re black and therefore more likely to be engaged in criminal activity.” That’s not what happened here. A police officer responded to a 911 call reporting two black males breaking into a house. When he arrived, he found a black… Read more →