Ask Skip Gates if he Got Silk? (Part 2)

So the Tribe launch was a big event, and the "Skip" Gates arrest was also a big event in the States, because it sparked a nationwide discussion on race relations. Now, granted, my experiences with law enforcement have not always been positive, and I can testify to unfair treatment, but in the same breath, I don't think that all police officers are racist, and it doesn't mean that this particular cop was racist, because that would be a broad generalization. I won't really get into it further, because I think history speaks for itself, when looking at race relations in America between African-Americans, or just black people in general, or any other minorities and Law Enforcement.

I also find it very funny, when some people say that "race isn't a factor," but the whole thing started with a white officer responding to a call that two black men were breaking into a home, which happened to be Skip Gates and his driver. After that, the first black female mayor of Cambridge apologized to Gates, but the white police officer refuses to apologize, because he felt he was following procedure. Then the first black president, Barack Obama, said in a press conference that the officers acted "stupidly" in arresting him. Then to counteract his comment, four white presidents of four separate police unions, hold their own press conference to support the white arresting officer, Sergeant James Crowley, and demand that the president apologize to all law enforcement officials for his comments.

I'm not going to say much more on the subject, but forgive me if I don't believe the four white union president's statement that racism and racial profiling doesn't exist in the Cambridge Police Department. What I will say, is that I'm glad it has people revisiting the whole issue of race relations, because believe it or not, some people in America really genuinely believe that racism no longer exists, and often use President-elect Barack Obama as an example, right...

There is always two sides to every story…
(just like the whole incident with Luciano and Freckles in Kingston, google it breddren, google it...)
…so I'm not going to act like I was there, but this is my version of what happened.

When the police officer asked Professor Gates for proof that he lived there, he felt like Allison Hinds in her song, Roll it gal, that moment:

When dem fly up in yuh face Gates
Mek dem know dem place
Numba 1 inna di race yah
Could neva replace...

When Professor Gates followed the police officer, James Crowley outside to the door, demanding his name and badge number, Crowley probably felt like Destra in her song I Dare You, at that moment:

Tonight I'm not in de mood, (so you can gwaan shout and behave rude)
So anyting yu want to do, I dare you, I dare you.

When really what they both need to do, is accept that "things will never be the same, that's just the way it is," like a Tupac remix...



...and so how are the two incidents related, I think the first is the remedy for the latter, or in other words Gates and Crowley should go down to Trinidad for Carnival 2010. Carnival will solve everything, because after Jouvert morning, jumping carnival, and waving dem flag for a week straight, the whole incident would seem less important.

We Jamaicans have reggae, but I have to give it to the Trinis, they definitely have Carnival. When it's carnival time, you forget about all your problems, all your worries, all your fears, and if you don't like somebody, you too busy jumping up and wining, to even remember why you don't like the person. Just enjoying life, even the most hardcore yaad man forgets that he's been listening to Soca 120 hours straight, and might even shout out "Pull-up" once or twice, and bang on the wall at a fete. How do I know all this, well let's just say that I left Piarco International Airport with a big "Quench-Aid" or "Kool-Aid" smile back in 2007, but that's a whole other story...



So my advice to Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley is simply this, go to Carnival and feel like Machel Montano in his song with Beenie Man back in 1999, Outta Space (UFOs), and at that moment, both of you should just:

Jump around like yuh gone insane
Dis is PORT-OF-SPAIN

RIDDIM UP...