Jazmyne Young, 20, discusses why she thinks the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. doesn’t do much to address the problem of police racially profiling black men.

This is when I must make a reference to the title of my blog, “deep but not profound”, because it’s an important way I decipher through and rate the validity of information that I receive/share.

It is my mental challenge/goal to chase the “profound thought”. I’m a relatively quiet person in spaces held for dialogue about “important issues” because I think a lot of times people will take any opportunity to share their thoughts/conclusions/ideas still caught up on their illusions of grandeur and when all is said and done, their miles off on their road towards enlightenment.

Take the professor Gates arrest controversy, too much time was spent back and forth trying to remain politically correct and socially loyal towards the American inclination to honor the troops, police, president, and anyone else in a position honorable in its ideal while denying the reality of their often despicable actions.

Black people have more than enough logical, justifiable, and historical reason to be weary of the police, and to be critical of an institution that has successfully been known to profile, incarcerate, murder, plot, and terrorize our communities and it’s members since…how about this, you name me a time when there wasn’t a largely funded government-sanctioned entity that effectively de-humanized and harassed black people. From officers to overseers, HISTORY speaks louder than words. All of this useless debate about educated blacks with power and prestige being subjected to the same b/s that “regular” black people go through everyday, get out of denial and get a life!

This story was cause for debate and commentary by everyone from Boris Kodjoe to Col. Powell. President Obama spoke on it more than once, inviting Gates along with arresting officer Crowley to the white house to discuss matters over a beer. Gates has even called officer Crowley a ‘nice guy’. He’s even considered making a documentary about the arrest, and has concluded the situation to be a misunderstanding/difference of perceptions between how the police saw the situation and that of Gates.

Different perceptions? The valid point of police mistakingly harrassing, arresting, and ofttimes murdering black men has been reduced to just a simple misunderstanding? Ask Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant or even Radio Raheem if they give a f*ck about a different perception, these mothaf*ckas shoot to kill, and that’s the reality when you aren’t a harvard professor, Barack Obama doesn’t know you personally by nickname, “Ay there, Skip.”, and your black ass gets caught looking suspicious in the wrong place at the wrong time.

People are wasting all this time debating the trivial aspects of the actual situation to avoid the PROFOUND dialogue about police terrorism, and why too many times we – black people and the police – get our wires crossed and they end up interpreting us living our black lives to the best of our knowledge and means, in any and most all everyday situations as cause or suspicion for arrest…or worse.

This whole situation was deep but not profound, a whole lot of talk that at the end of the day only served as entertainment and water-cooler conversation. Most people don’t want to get real about racism, I think. It’s a lot easier to point the finger at the other side, keep things black and white without margining in the marginalized, and be careful not to offend the individual while criticizing the collective. I used to try and make it my personal crusade to be mindful of history and bring my freedom-fighting agenda to all arenas of life, but the truth is, it has served me better to just shut-up and blog.
—Jazmyne Young