"Anger Has Its Place"

This is the title of Bob Herbert's op-ed on the Gates arrest and President Obama's suggestion that the incident be viewed as presenting a "teachable moment." Herbert: "[S]o far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it--especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill. . . . I have nothing but contempt for that message."

And: "Most whites do not want to hear about racial problems, and President Obama would rather walk through fire than spend his time dealing with them. We're never going to have a serious national conversation about race. So that leaves it up to ordinary black Americans to rant and to rave, to demonstrate and to lobby, to march and confront and to sue and generally do whatever is necessary to stop a continuing and deeply racist criminal justice outrage."