Views on the White House “Beer Summit”
From The Hindu:
In an effort to douse down a racial firestorm, US President Barack Obama had a glass of beer with professor Henry Gates and police Sergeant, who had arrested the Harvard professor for ‘disorderly conduct’.
Sitting along a picnic table next to the White House’s new swing set, the three were yesterday seen drinking beer from clear glass mugs along and munching peanuts and pretzels served in small silver bowls.
As a later addition, Mr. Obama also invited the Vice President, Joe Biden, to what the US media has characterised as the beer summit.
The momentous occasion was part of Mr. Obama’s effort to calm down the racial firestorm which erupted following the arrest of Gates by Henry Crowly, to which the US President added fuel to the fire by stating that the police acted ’stupidly’.
The controversy that included the offended white police officer and the leading black scholar, who also happened to be an old friend of the President, quickly spiralled into a national issue sparking a fierce debate on racial profiling by law enforcement.
Mr. Obama, however, later backed off from his remarks, and making a surprise appearance at the daily White House Press conference acknowledged that he made a wrong choice of words.
From FoxNews:
After nearly a week of anticipation, happy hour finally arrived Thursday at the White House.
President Obama knocked back some cold beer in the Rose Garden with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and police Sgt. James Crowley of Cambridge, Mass., the two men at the heart last week of a heated debate over race in America.
Vice President Biden also joined them in a gathering that some dubbed the “beer summit” to clear the air after the recent uproar. Obama described it afterward as a “friendly, thoughtful conversation.”
“I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart,” Obama said. “I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.”
The dispute began July 16 when Crowley, while investigating a report of a potential burglary at Gates’ house, arrested the agitated professor on a charge of disorderly conduct. Gates, who is black, accused the white sergeant of racial profiling. The disorderly conduct charge was dropped — but the dispute exploded into a national debate, particularly after Obama said the police had “acted stupidly” in arresting Gates.
From the New York Times:
President Barack Obama played bartender-in-chief on Thursday at a “beer summit” of the main players in a racially charged case that he hoped would be a “positive lesson” in a national dialogue on race.
Obama, the first black U.S. president, said it was a “friendly, thoughtful” conversation over beer at the White House with prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley, who is white.
Crowley arrested Gates, a well-known documentary filmmaker, for disorderly conduct on July 16 after a confrontation at the professor’s home, sparking a media frenzy as Gates, 58, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley, who had taught courses against racial profiling, denied that.
Obama inflamed the situation by saying he thought police “acted stupidly” in arresting his friend.
“I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart,” Obama said in a statement after the meeting in a garden outside the Oval Office.
“I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.”
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