大名鼎鼎的哈佛黑人教授盖茨，从中国访问回来后在自己的家中被捕，在奥巴马所象征的“后种族时代”又触发了一长典型的“种族时代”的论争。
五十八岁的盖茨教授是哈佛非洲和非裔美国人研究中心的主任。不仅如此，他还是一位公共知识分子，不停地指导拍摄一系列记录片，在1997年曾被评为美国二十五位最有影响的人士。此次他到中国旅行，目的是研究著名大提琴家马友友的家族史。但是，当他从机场乘出租回到家后，发现自家的前门不开。他绕到后门进去，关闭了警报系统，然后请黑人出租司机帮忙，一起把门强行推开。此时一位外人妇女路过，见两位黑人正在破门而入，立即打电话报警。当一位白人警察到达后，黑人出租司机已经离开，盖茨教授则在自家的前厅里。
误会也正是从这里开始。警察叫盖茨教授出来。盖茨教授拒绝。警察跟进屋子，要求他出示的证件，盖茨教授拿出两个证件，一是麻省的，一是哈佛的，表明自己住在这里，是哈佛的教授。根据警察的报告，盖茨教授此时质问警察：你为什么这样作？难道就因为我是黑人？难道这就是你在美国怎么对待黑人吗？他要求警察通报自己的名字和徽章号码。警察说他通报了自己的名字和号码，盖茨教授则说对方拒绝通报。
根据警察的报告，盖茨此时不停地高声斥责他是种族主义者，并威胁说：“你根本不知道你在惹谁？！”警察请他走出房子说话，他则说：“我出来跟你妈妈说话！”因为他如此大声喧闹，引起过路行人的围观，警察立即打电话要“增援”。等其他警察到场后，盖茨教授以行为失范而被捕。
当然，盖茨被捕后，其律师立即到场，他缴纳四十块保释金后被释放。此事引起轩然大波后，警方也立即撤消了对他的指控。但是，此事却无法就此平息。盖茨声称：“有上百万黑人被关在监狱里，我是其中之一！”许多黑人精英也站出来现身说法，称你不管有多大成就、多少钱、开什么豪华车、住什么豪宅，你只要是黑人，就还是被警察用审视犯人的目光看待，进豪华饭店被误认为是司机只能走后门，甚至无缘无故被盘问。如今盖茨这么一个知名人士，走在自己家门口常被人拦住要签名，但竟不能在自己的家里向警察证明自己是谁。这种根深蒂固的种族主义，实在叫人难以容忍。
但是，另一部分公众则有截然不同的反应。许多人都有在忘了钥匙而企图破门而入时在自己家中被警察盘问的经历。毕竟警察是接到报警而来，在这个******泛滥的国家执行的任务相当危险。人家先站在你家门口让你出来。你不出来人家只能跟近来要证件。这和种族主义有什么关系？这时你就开骂人家是种族主义，是否太小题大作了呢？在许多人看来，这是一个有权有势的哈佛大教授在欺负一个小警察。这么一个误会，怎么可以用来证明上百万经过正当法律程序被关在监狱的黑人是冤屈的？
盖茨教授称此事没完。他没有说要进行法律诉讼，但他要求那个警察道歉，并要给该警察讲一堂种族主义的免费历史课。另外，他计划把自己的这个经历放到有关的纪录片中。很快，奥巴马总统也介入，公开称盖茨是自己的老朋友，“警察的行为非常愚蠢。”
真是如此吗？几天后，当事警察终于公开表态：“我不会道歉，我不是种族主义者。” 除此以外，他因为没有上级授权，不能多谈。事实证明，他十六年前还有过捷径营救一位黑人运动员的记录。他的同事、邻居都站出来为他说话。警察工会审核了此案的过程后，宣布对他毫无保留的支持。不过，即使从最为同情盖茨的报道中，你也看不出这位警察犯了任何错误：他接到报案立即到场，甚至没有轻易入舍，而是要求破门而入者出示证件，是在在被拒绝时才跟进去；等意识到对方是房子的主人后，他马上请对方出来说话，避免进入民宅。他在这个过程中遭到辱骂。双方争议最大的，是他是否向对方通报了自己的名字和号码。如果真有警方处置不当之处，那就是盖茨教授的被捕。即使盖茨大声喧哗，是否有必要将他抓起来？这种行为合法但未必合情。不过，逮捕是增援后的警察作出的。从照片上看，这些个警察来自多种族，包括黑人。指责人家种族主义似乎就说不过去了。
警官坚称自己不是种族主义者。
此事如此小题大作，对美国的种族关系实在有非常恶劣的影响。美国正在出现反向的肤色政治：黑肤色成了精英的象征，白肤色则代表着受压迫的小民百姓。这可能成为未来共和党的一件武器。长期的奴隶制度和种族歧视，给黑人造成了受害者情结。但现在白人也逐渐发展出独特的受害者情结来。这特别表现在种族平权的“积极行动”上。许多白人的平民子弟，在考分明显高的情况下，被考分低的富裕黑人在大学、就业竞争中挤掉。在去年的大选中，共和党的副总统候选人佩林之所以异常人气，也是因为她是个贫寒出身、为了省钱换了五个小大学才毕业的底层白人。奥巴马这种常青藤塑造的黑人贵族，和佩林这种缺少良好教育机会的穷白人，实际上给许多白人创造了一种自己受欺负的心理暗示。行为古怪的佩林，至今仍然打这一受害者牌。盖茨被捕事件，则进一步展示了这一主题。盖茨利用此事上纲上线，觉得自己的经历证明了黑人所受到的压迫。其实，即使从黑人的角度说，如果受到的压迫不过如此，那实在也太轻描淡写了。而另外有许多人则觉得，一个无权无势的普通白人警察，在忠实地执行任务时受到认识总统的通天的黑人精英的欺负。这势将为白人民粹主义的崛起提供了必要的燃料。
附：原文英语报道（来自英国《卫报》）：Obama wades into race row over Harvard professor's arrest（哈佛教授被捕引争端，奥巴马蹚浑水相助）
President says officer 'acted stupidly' in arresting Henry Louis Gates and highlights history of police racism President Barack Obama has waded deep into an increasingly bitter race row by saying that a white police officer "acted stupidly" in arresting a renowned black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, after he forced the door of his own home. The president's additional comments about a long history of police racism amid accusations that one of the country's most prominent African-American scholars was detained only because he is black has dampened enthusiasm for claims that Obama's election takes America "post-racial". Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct after neighbours called the police when they saw him and a black taxi driver attempting to force the jammed front door of his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What transpired is disputed but after producing identification to show that he was at his own house, a row ensued in which Gates demanded an officer's name and badge number and accused him of racial profiling. The police sergeant then arrested him for disorderly conduct. "This is what happens to black men in America!" Gates yelled to a crowd outside his house as he was handcuffed. Charges were later dropped. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home," he said. "What I think we know, separate and apart from this incident, is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. And that's just a fact." "Here, I'd get shot," he said of the White House. But Obama's comment was also taken as an observation about the assumptions white police officers make about black men in responding to reports of criminal behaviour. Gates said he was pleased with the president's support. "I think it was brilliant," he said in an interview with the broadcaster Tavis Smiley. "It is a great speech about race, and race relations, particularly between black people and white people at the beginning of the 21st century." Gates said the arrest made him aware of how minorities are vulnerable "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman". But the police officer at the centre of the row, Sergeant James Crowley, told a Boston radio station that he won't be apologising and that it is "disappointing that he [Obama] waded into what should be a local issue". "I know what I did was right," he said. Other officials were prepared to apologise to Gates, including the mayor of Cambridge, Denise Simmons, who called him to say that the arrest was "regrettable and unfortunate". The state governor, Deval Patrick, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Gates has won considerable support from other academics, some of whom have said that there is a mistaken belief among some white Americans that the country is moving beyond racial issues after Obama's election. "I thought the whole idea that America was post-racial and post-black was laughable from the beginning. There is no more important event in the history of black people in America than the election of Barack Obama ... but that does not change the percentage of black men in prison, the percentage of black men harassed by racial profiling," he told the New America Foundation. "There haven't been fundamental structural changes in America. There's been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama. But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue [the White House]."
Obama had earlier lightened the mood by wondering what would happen if he were trying to break in to his own home.
Gates agrees.
