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Time nation had ‘the talk’

Published 1:03 pm Sunday, January 17, 2010

Not many topics are more uncomfortable for Americans than race and race relations.

Even our rarely-at-a-loss for words president needed the lure of mood-lightening libations to ease the awkwardness when he invited the professor and the policeman over to his house to discuss the big situation they all found themselves in last summer.

In July, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home by Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley for disorderly conduct after a report that black men were breaking into the house. After initial media reports, President Obama declared that the police had “acted stupidly.” Hence what became known as the “beer summit.”

The invitation garnered a lot of attention. Obama tried to downplay it, saying he was “fascinated by the fascination about this evening.”

Really? He couldn’t understand the interest in a conversation between the black professor, the white policeman who arrested him and our biracial president?

“I noticed this has been called the ‘Beer Summit.’ It’s a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys,” Obama said. “This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day (he forgot he invited Joe Biden), and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other … This is not a university seminar.”

Actually, a race-relations summit is a good idea — the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday would seem a perfect day.

Other topics this year could include:

  • Remembering Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, the black U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum security guard killed in June by white supremacist James W. von Brunn, 89. Johns, who was 6 feet 6 inches and more than 300 pounds, was known as a “gentle giant” and a “care bear” who went out of his way to help others. He opened the museum door for the man who shot him. Von Brunn, who completed funeral plans before embarking on his failed suicide-by-cop mission, was wounded by other guards. He finally died on Jan. 6.

  • Former President Carter’s truth-telling that some people oppose Obama because of his race. Yes, many people object to Obama’s policies, but others object to his race. The hate-filled, unprintable letters, phone calls and e-mails to this newspaper alone provide ample evidence that Carter knows of what he speaks.

    Like the beer summit, real discussions require real people, and real issues, or it’s just more George Will and Liz Cheney divining the content of Sen. Harry Reid’s character. Awkward, tough talks about race — which includes giving people an opportunity to listen to each other — might help us understand more, and judge less.

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