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The incident made national headlines as an example of police profiling Black men, and news programs and talk shows debated whether race had anything to do with the outcome. During a news conference held by President Obama, he described the arrest of Gates as “stupid,” and his remark brought on a huge outcry from primarily White citizens who came to the defense of the police. The outcry resulted in the president expressing regret at not “calibrating” his words more carefully. President Obama subsequently invited both Gates and Crowley to the White House to bridge misunderstandings over a beer.

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. incident is a prime example of the central thesis of this book, microaggressions (racial, in this case).

1 Reports that Sergeant Crowley was a sensitive White officer, level‐headed, a role model to younger officers, and a man who devoted time to training others on diversity and how not to racially profile are documented by fellow officers. Gates is well known at Harvard and nationally as someone who has worked for improved race relations, is good at putting people at ease, is cool and calm under fire, and is devoted to social justice. In other words, both men could be described as good, moral, and decent human beings who believe in equality between the races. Yet as our later chapters indicate, no one is immune from inheriting the racial biases of their forebears. While we cannot definitively conclude that Crowley engaged in a series of microaggressions outside his level of awareness, the arrest of Gates reveals insensitivity to what it must be like for a Black man (the resident of the home he was suspected of breaking into) to be confronted with police officers. Even when he showed identification that confirmed he was the legal resident of the home, Crowley persisted in asking Gates to step out of the house and onto the porch.

2 The second point is that both men are operating from different racial realities. For Gates, his life has probably been filled with many incidents of racial microaggressions (suspected of being a criminal, less trustworthy, likely to be dangerous, etc.). To be considered a criminal in his own home was the ultimate indignity and insult. It is possible that Gates's reluctance to step out of his home as requested by Crowley may have been due to countless examples of law enforcement officers' mistreatment of African Americans, such as in the shooting of Amadou Diallo. In that event, police officers rushed toward an entryway to question a man whom they believed to be acting suspiciously. When Diallo reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, he was shot and killed because the officers thought he was reaching for a weapon. Even if unstated, Gates's belief that he was viewed more suspiciously than a White resident would not be unfounded or without merit. Yet Crowley probably believed that he acted within legal guidelines, that his actions were free of racial bias, and that he was not racially profiling. His White racial reality and inability to understand the reality of people of color represent major barriers to racial harmony.