The Beer Summit
"The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home ... There is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."—July 22, 2009
It was a conflict that just kept on gaining steam. In July, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. — an African American — was arrested by white police officer James Crowley at his front door after a neighbor reported a potential break-in at the residence. The arrest ushered in an uproar, causing some to denounce the arrest as racial profiling while others maintained the professor had been out of line in responding to Crowley. And when the country's first black President weighed in, that only complicated matters. Obama later called his choice of words "unfortunate" and apologized to Crowley before inviting both men to hash out their differences over beers in the White House Rose Garden.