DC Beer Summit...

So, like a lot of people I’ve been watching with interest President Obama’s attempt to smooth over the small but national crisis that grew out of the confrontation between Harvard professor Skip Gates (who’s Black) and James Crowley, the (White) Cambridge policeman who arrested him. You’ll recall that Obama invited the two of them to the White House for a beer and a tranquil chat.

It seems to have worked. The two men “agreed to disagree” and said nice things about one another. The crisis itself has receded from the headlines. If society’s underlying assumptions that led to the confrontation in the first place haven’t been overcome, at least they’re being discussed.

And yet, a day or so ago, there appeared in our local paper an angry letter from an outraged woman critiquing the Beer Summit from a Feminist perspective. She informed her readers that it was a shameful display of patriarchal attitudes, with sexist good old boys working out their typically shady deals over alcoholic beverages.

There is, of course, a message here, to wit: whatever you do, no matter how benign, benevolent, humane, and successful, there will always be someone—usually, albeit not always an academic or an intellectual—eager to tell you that it was shameful, and you, yourself, ought to be hanged, drawn, and quartered on public TV.

Oh, and disemboweled after that.

But not before you apologize. In a nice way. Ever so contritely. And in triplicate.