Henry Louis Gates

President Obama on Friday backed off his contention that police had acted "stupidly" in arresting a black Harvard University professor on disorderly conduct charges at his own home -- hoping to tamp down an escalating racial furor that has diverted attention from his policy agenda. The president, making a rare surprise visit to the White House press briefing room, said he had chosen the wrong words in saying the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department had blundered.

President Obama botched it again. From the beginning, I knew things were going to be tough for him, what with the economy and two wars and all. But I assumed he could at least strike the right tone on matters of race and color. Yes, I know he was the black guy elected to not say anything about color, but I refused to believe Obama would stick to that deal, at least not all the time. But then came the humiliation of watching Obama backtrack on his (correct) opinion about the racial profiling of scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.; more recently, there was the panicky, preemptive firing of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod for allegedly making anti-white comments.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Obama. Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, cited times when he was a victim of racial profiling -- including as national security advisor. Sometimes, he said, you just have to let it slide. The confrontation between Gates, a noted black scholar, and white police Sgt.

'Faces of America With Henry Louis Gates Jr.' Where: KCET When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

A national furor over race relations paused Thursday as President Obama, in a shady spot on the White House lawn near the Rose Garden, sat down for beers with a black Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him two weeks ago. For the two men who raised their mugs with the president and vice president -- both guests dressed in suits and ties and sitting stiffly in what was meant to be a casual moment -- the discussion of race and policing will go on. Sgt.

President Obama botched it again. From the beginning, I knew things were going to be tough for him, what with the economy and two wars and all. But I assumed he could at least strike the right tone on matters of race and color. Yes, I know he was the black guy elected to not say anything about color, but I refused to believe Obama would stick to that deal, at least not all the time. But then came the humiliation of watching Obama backtrack on his (correct) opinion about the racial profiling of scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.; more recently, there was the panicky, preemptive firing of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod for allegedly making anti-white comments.

With many Americans growing anxious about his plans to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, President Obama on Wednesday sought to lay out in personal terms how they stand to gain from the legislation that he has made one of the top goals of his presidency.

Bomb the canon. Expand the canon. Leave the canon just where it is.

'Faces of America With Henry Louis Gates Jr.' Where: KCET When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

The pun in the title of "Loose Canons" reveals something crucial about Henry Louis Gates Jr., an elegant partisan in the not-so-civil war over "multiculturalism." His targets are the self-appointed guardians of the accepted texts of Western literature--the ossified academics, high-falutin' literary critics and vainglorious editors who serve as our cultural commissars--but his weapon is a stiletto wit.

When Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. started his latest genealogical project for PBS, which used historical archives and cutting-edge genetic research to trace the ancestry of a dozen famous Americans, he already had one hoped-for outcome in mind. "I wanted to pick someone who is Jewish and someone who is Muslim and pray we get the same result in their DNA," he said. Sure enough, genetic testing revealed that director Mike Nichols, of Eastern European Jewish heritage, and surgeon and television host Mehmet Oz, the son of Turkish Muslim immigrants, had a common paternal ancestor thousands of years ago. "That is like affirming the story of Abraham," Gates said delightedly.

Cartoonists copped an attitude and played our race cards after the high-profile arrest that led to the Great Barack Brew-Ha-Ha Summit. Mike Keefe brooded over countless past injustices, while Steve Kelley countered with a counterintuitive lunch-counter encounter. Nate Beeler focused on how the president's flat-footed footnote fell flat, unfavorably comparing the prez to his loose-lipped (if somewhat more seasoned) lieutenant. -- Joel Pett

President Obama's White House beer with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley was good for garnering headlines. But let's have no expectations about its worth or reach as a "teachable moment" when it comes to complicated social issues. Why? Because Gates appears to be a product of his institution and, like Harvard professors who preceded him, mired in the past and unwilling to move beyond his assumptions. I believe I can make the comparison.

A national furor over race relations paused Thursday as President Obama, in a shady spot on the White House lawn near the Rose Garden, sat down for beers with a black Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him two weeks ago. For the two men who raised their mugs with the president and vice president -- both guests dressed in suits and ties and sitting stiffly in what was meant to be a casual moment -- the discussion of race and policing will go on. Sgt.

To each his own. It could be the theme of that get-together over a cold beer that the president, the professor and the police officer have planned at the White House today to discuss the dust-up that was stirred up when President Obama accused the Cambridge, Mass., police of acting "stupidly" in the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his own home. The president is planning to crack a Bud Light at the meeting with Gates and Police Sgt. James Crowley.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Obama. Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, cited times when he was a victim of racial profiling -- including as national security advisor. Sometimes, he said, you just have to let it slide. The confrontation between Gates, a noted black scholar, and white police Sgt.

When Henry Louis Gates Jr. applied to Yale in his springtime of militancy in 1969, he began his personal essay: "My grandfather was colored, my father was Negro, and I am black." Now, in a preface to his affecting, beautifully written and morally complex memoir, Gates addresses his two daughters: "In your lifetimes, I suspect, you will go from being African Americans, to 'people of color,' to being, once again, 'colored people.' (The linguistic trend toward condensation is strong.

It was in the late 1960s and early '70s that black studies was born as an academic discipline. On some campuses, black studies departments were organized hastily, more to appease white guilt in the wake of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. than from any conviction that U.S. intellectual life would benefit from a sustained and rigorous study of the presence of blacks in America. Many such programs became victims of their ill-conceived beginnings.

About the only thing as disappointing as the frivolous arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was the loud, almost gleeful chorus of "I told you so's" coming from his defenders. You've heard of schadenfreude -- taking pleasure in the suffering of others? Well, this was the peculiar political version. It's not that commentators were happy that Gates had allegedly been mistreated.

President Obama on Friday backed off his contention that police had acted "stupidly" in arresting a black Harvard University professor on disorderly conduct charges at his own home -- hoping to tamp down an escalating racial furor that has diverted attention from his policy agenda. The president, making a rare surprise visit to the White House press briefing room, said he had chosen the wrong words in saying the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department had blundered.