Issue

13th Issue (Sept, 2009)

Racial Profiling: Source of Clash of Civilizations in race relations

K.S.Chow

Introduction

The Cambridge episode of Gates versus Crowley was just a local issue developed into a national controversy on race relations in the U.S. Obviously it was a cultural clash of civilizations between a white U.S citizen and a black citizen. This explosive episode of the perils of policing and the genuine fear of racial profiling has an edifying education for all of us in any part of the world which has become increasingly cosmopolitan.

Explosive Episode

The teachable episode involved two equally good men, U.S citizens  from Cambridge in Massachusetts.  A black professor, Gates, an eminent  Harvard scholar on Africans and African Americans forced open the jammed door of his own house after return from Beijing. A neighbour, suspecting a burglary-in-progress, called up the police to investigate.  A white police officer, Crowley, an expert on racial profiling rushed to the scene together with two other police men, one white and one black. Gates lost his temper and over-reacted verbally he was falsely being treated as a criminal. Crowley charged him for disorderly conduct. The charge was subsequently dropped. The overreactions of both party transformed a simple suspected criminal case into an episode of racial profiling.

 President Obama’s initial  heedless or undiplomatic  remark on the episode on race relations sparked off national debate and spawned a national furor among the staff of the police department in Cambridge and friends and associates of Crowley. Realizing subsequently that Crowley is a police  expert on racial profiling and a morally good man, President Obama admitted with humility that the imperfection of Gates, Crowley and himself. President hosted a ‘beer summit’ in the rose garden of the White House to solve the differences through listening rather than through shooting from the  lips of disputing parties. In the beer ‘summit’, both parties agreed to disagree. This helped to quell a national furor on racial profiling. I opine that the attitude of ‘Agreed to disagree’ is wisdom that reconciles  soured human relationship.

Agreement to disagree

Agreement to disagree mirrors that both parties were cool and wise after the dust had settled down. In fact, any form of  clash of civilizations can  be mitigated and fixed through the wise reconciliation  of agreement to disgree. This is what the world can learn from the teachable moment of the afore-narrated episode. Agreement to disagree requires the wisdom of respecting the dissimilar perspective of opposite party. It is the wise application of the power of empathy of  averting doing onto others as you do want others to do onto you. I discover that the head of a government can play  a  very helpful role to avert any ethnic furore developing into a heated national crisis. It is much more softer and more effective than court jurisdiction of win-lose conclusion that may fuel further ugly human behaviours among the sympathizers or supporters .

Non-duality

In Buddhism, this non-discriminative wisdom of empathy  is known as the wisdom of Non-duality. Duality is discriminative reasoning of the intellectual or conceptual head discriminating between  right and wrong. Conflict arises when one  perceives the wrongness of  other and affirms the rightness of oneself. However, if one applies the Buddhist non-discriminative wisdom of Non-duality, one will perceive that oneself is right and the opposite party is equally right from different individual perspectives or points of view. Gates and Crowley are indeed good men as they turned the entire episode into an occasion of education rather than the minefield of recrimination. They have applied unknowingly or knowingly the Gotama Buddha’s philosophical doctrine of Non-duality (Advaya) which is preached as the divine doctrine of union with God in Process Monotheism. President Obama was diplomatic to facilitate the ‘beer summit’ to bring about a cessation of the cultural clash of civilizations between  the white and the black.

Both Right and Wrong

Gates was not a burglar but a genuine house owner. His outpour of anger was justified. That he was investigated as a burglar caused his overreacted outburst of temper which humiliated the Crowley. Equally overreacting with outburst of temper, Crowley charged Gates with disorderly conduct. The episode mirrors that both were right from their individual perspective. Both parties were also equally wrong because of overreactions. Overreactions impeded immediate  calm reconciliation. Consequently, a local issue exploded uncontrollably into a national ethnic controversy and uproar as a consequence of clash of civilizations rooted in racial profiling.

Conclusion

President Obama’s simple but wise gesture  orchestrated the transformation of a racially tainted confrontation between a black scholar and a white police into a teachable moment on race relations not only  for the Americans but also to the other cosmopolitan nations in the world. The initial standoff and subsequent resolution between Gates and Crowley facilitated by the rose garden ‘beer summit’ sponsored by President Obama  mirrors that U.S  indeed can play the effective role of moral leadership for resolving racial profiling involving the police and the minority communities.

Non-duality. The Atribute of the Absolute,  is l the best solution to avert the clashes of cultural or religious civilizations in race relations in any country.  It is an edifying lesson for the United States as well as for many parts of the rest of the multi-ethnic  world easily shaken by racial profiling. This has prompted me to write a theosophical perception of this racially tainted episode on race relations in the United States so that we  may learn a teachable lesson on race relations.

The empathy of Non-duality  permits us to manifest differences without demoralizing one another. Non-duality obliterates ethnic inequalities and prejudices. Thus, this religious wisdom of Theosophy of Non-duality is  the best solution to avert the clash of cultural civilizations locally, nationally, regionally and globally. Religion is not only confined to seeking a rebirth in the heaven in the hereafter. Improving human relations especially race relations is spiritually a construction of   a terrestrial paradise or earthly heaven here and now. The terrestrial paradise is  found within Buddha-nature of Man or the Kingdom of Heaven within us and not without. It is located in the inner heart of Man, the pure and infinite consciousness of Man. Non-duality is a liberating Wisdom that completely silences the chatter of the human mind of duality. The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) of Non-duality (Advaya)  engenders the liberative and unitive perfection of forbearance or tolerance. Non-duality or Non-discrimination is the communal Truth of unitive Wisdom preached all world’s great religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.