White Privilege: What if Henry Louis Gates had been White? The Academy Speaks: By now, most enlightened people have heard about the incident involving Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge, Mass., police. As a recap, the Cambridge police arrested the eminent scholar in front of his home. Just having returned from filming a PBS special in China, Gates, along with his Black taxi driver, were trying to loosen the lock on the front door of his home. A concerned woman called the police noting that “two black men” were forcing their way into a house in her neighborhood. Although Gates was already in the house making a phone call to the real estate company that manages his home, the police arrested him.
