Over the weekend, there's been a minor uproar over New York Rep. Charlie Rangel's remarks about President Obama's visit to New York. When a reporter asked Rangel what Obama should do when he visits the city, Rangel replied, “Make certain he doesn’t run around in East Harlem without identification.”
The remark was a reference to the killing of police officer Omar J. Edwards by fellow officer Andrew Dunton. Edwards was in plainclothes, and chasing after someone who was breaking into his car. He had his weapon out. Three other plainclothes officers arrived and yelled for them to stop. One, Dunton, shot Edwards three times as he turned around.
The thing about Rangel's joke is that he's not wrong: We're living in a country where a black man can be president but where black men are still so at risk of accidental violence from police that even black officers are concerned about it. That said, Rangel is a public official whose constituency includes some of the officers he was criticizing. It's his responsibility to make sure that when he does criticize the police, he does so in a respectful and constructive manner. His remark would have been appropriate for a comedian, not a congressman.
In the meantime, it's worth pondering the significance of such an event. There's no indication that Dunton harbors any special animosity toward black people -- rather, racial bias is so socially ingrained that we draw on our biases subconsciously, when we aren't even thinking. That kind of racism is a much greater problem than the forthright prejudice of yesteryear, which for the most part has become socially unacceptable.
-- A. Serwer
