The XX Factor: What women really think.

What I'm Learning from Skip Gates' Arrest

That's a really upsetting litany of stories, Marjorie, about the cops accosting you and your relatives. The confluence of Skip Gates' arrest and the Obama presidency are making white people, at least some of us, take in these stories differently. We've heard them before, but now maybe we're absorbing them. Obama's election has both raised expectations of a post-racial America and given us a lens through which to see clearly how we still fall short. (Read the rest of this post, or the whole conversation, in Double X.)

Living While Black: Skip Gates Is Just The Latest Victim

Thanks, Samantha, for pointing out a tendency by some white people to show, as you say, a “reflexive defense mechanism” whenever another white person, usually one in a position of power, is accused of showing racism. Coming from me, a black person, similiar sentiments are often dismissed as biased. But aren't the white people defending Officer Crowley and criticizing Skip Gates also showing bias?

The difference in perception is predicated on a simple fact: Most white people have never experienced, and could never imagine, such a thing happening to them or their loved ones. But if you’re black, you’ve probably experienced an unpleasant, potentially dangerous, encounter with white police, or know some other black person who has. In my case there have been several such encounters ... (Read more in Double X.)

Skip Gates Comes Up With His Own Silver Lining

There's much to rue in the story of how Henry Louis Gates Jr. (editor-in-chief of our sister site, The Root) was arrested at his house last week. Was it supposedly disorderly conduct when Gates asked to see a Cambridge cop's badge and ID? Or when he said the cop was making a mistake based on racial profiling? The charge was dropped this afternoon, lucky for the cop ... (Read the rest of this post, or the whole conversation, in Double X.)