Henry Louis Gates incident

Hello everyone,

Here is my first post of this snazzy little blog of mine! My entire goal for this blog is to bring you lots and lots of photographs. Through a photojournalism class, the Ithacan, previously working for the Eagle-Tribune as a photojournalist, and working as a second shooter for weddings, there are many different aspects of photojournalism to explore. I hope I never run out of pictures to take, and this is one way to make sure that happens.

This first post is about the Gate’s incident over the summer has left students at Cornell University talking about the problem of racial profiling. The event, in which an African-American professor from Harvard University, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested under the accusation of breaking and entering into his own home by a white police officer, has caused a lot of controversy. Students at Cornell University had plenty to say on the issue.

Brian Sherman, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, believes that the police officer was quick to jump to conclusions. Sherman, from Westerville, Ohio, contemplates the issue and deduced that it was “not entirely the police officer’s fault,” but that they both added to the extremity of the situation.

Bill Ye, from Los Angeles, California, a first-year graduate student in law, thinks different sociology patterns were involved. “I think it was really just a big misunderstanding. Subconsciously, though, it is very possible that the cop was absolutely falling into racial profiling.” Ye, who admitted to not being fully aware of the entire situation, doesn’t think anyone is ultimately to blame, but both parties could have stood down, and both made it a much bigger scene than what was necessary.

A calm and mature approach to a situation like this is of utmost importance. Joanna Smith, a freshman from Miami, Florida, says “I believe that both were quick to jump to conclusions about the other… you must approach something like that with a clear and level head, on both of their sides.”