Obama beer break a question of black and white

US President Barack Obama was scheduled to have a beer with a white police officer and an eminent black scholar at the White House last night in a bid to quell a heated national furore over racial profiling.

Obama planned to welcome distinguished Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates and police sergeant Jim Crowley for 6pm beers on the White House South Lawn, hoping to turn the page on a race row that erupted during a July 16 incident at the scholar’s home.

The contretemps flared when Gates, arguably the foremost US scholar on African-American affairs, was arrested after police received a call that two men might be attempting a break-in at a house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As it turned out, the “break-in” was Gates’s attempt to enter his own home when the door lock jammed.

Gates and Crowley exchanged heated words, and the professor was ultimately arrested for disorderly conduct. Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, added to the controversy when he said police had “acted stupidly” by arresting his friend after establishing that Gates had been in his own home.

The incident sparked an intense national discussion as to whether police rushed to stereotype a black man as a potential criminal – even a bookish and middle-aged one such as Gates – solely based on his race. But public outrage also swelled over Obama’s choice of words, and his hasty characterisation of what had happened.

It provided an opening for right-wing commentators to criticise the president as well, including one who accused Obama of being racist against whites.

Some critics say the president maligned Crowley, a well-regarded officer in Cambridge who trained others in his department on the perils of racial profiling.

Last week, Obama called Crowley to express regret over his statement, and to invite the police officer and Gates to the White House for a reconciliatory beer. Obama later said blame in the standoff was shared, suggesting that Gates “probably overreacted” – as did police, by booking a professor for being hot-headed.

The controversy ends the first six months of Obama’s presidency in which he managed not to be defined by his race, but he still hopes the “beer summit” can be a symbol of reconciliation.