As you may have read, Henry Louis Gates got jammed up trying to get into his own house.  Bad biz.
Nothing really to say about what happened to Skip — who, in a manner of speaking, is my former employer — but there are questions.
When Skip was breaking into his house, what was he wearing?  Was he coming back from the gym in a track suit?  Because, even with racism being a clear variable in this case, I can’t imagine seeing Henry Louis Gates and thinking he was a prowler.
Have you ever met Skip?  You ever seen him on TV?  Any interaction with him whatsoever?
If he was a burglar, what would he call himself, The Tweedcoat Bandit?  Was he breaking in because he heard they keep old slave narratives under the mattress?
Perhaps that’s the most offensive part of this.  I’m not saying Skip doesn’t look like he might steal.  Everyone looks like they might steal.  He does not, however, look like he would break into somebody’s house.  At the very least, he looks like he’d be too good of a crook to just shoot the shit with Johnny Law if he’s breaking in.
(EDIT–here’s his gear.)
Not getting mad about this.  Plus, some of this falls on Skip.  That’s right.  Clearly, he doesn’t talk to his neighbors enough.
Unless he just moved there, everyone around should know that he is the black guy in the neighborhood.  You gotta go to the mailbox every day.  Pass out cookies on Christmas.  Have the police come and do a “safety inspection” so you can introduce yourself (a former prof of mine did that, which was very, very wise).  But man, you gotta make sure that when those folks see you, they stop and say, “oh wait, that’s him.”
You make a decision to live that Ivy League life, then you’ve gotta have more game than that, man.  Kinda makes you wonder why this doesn’t happen to him more.
Oh well.  I do think “The Tweedcoat Bandit” would look great on business cards.