Gates case strikes nerve, stirs racial debate

In Savin Hill and West Roxbury, whites who voted for President Obama say he was wrong to criticize the Cambridge police officer who arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr., insisting that police were simply doing their job.

While class background and political leanings clearly shape people’s views on the volatile affair, a range of recent interviews indicated that personal opinions on the Gates case fall overwhelmingly along the familiar fault line of race. The intense interest in the case, many said, proved it had struck a nerve, that talk of a “post-racial’’ society was woefully premature.

For the most part, minorities said Gates would not have been arrested if he were white, and police probably would never have been called to begin with. Being black, some said, turned even a prominent scholar on race relations into a suspect.

Whites, even those who believed the police overreacted, tended to downplay race as a factor and said tempers and egos, not skin color, caused the situation to get out of hand.

Like few incidents in recent memory, the imbroglio has renewed the polarizing debate on racial profiling and the state of race relations in America. And in an echo of the reaction to the O.J. Simpson verdict, the fallout over Gates’s arrest has shown in stark, sobering terms that many blacks and whites see the episode in glaringly different ways.

“Do I think it would have been different if Gates were white, or if the cop was black? Sure I do,’’ said Greg Smith, a 51-year-old African-American on his way home from the grocery store in Uphams Corner in Dorchester on Friday. “It’s sad, but that’s just the way it is - the way the world works, at least for now.’’

At first, Raymond Jackson said the arrest seemed far from black and white. There are two sides to every story, he said diplomatically. Gates and the police officer, not to mention Obama, could all have handled the situation better.

But as to whether race played a role in the confrontation or whether a white man would have faced a similar fate, the 55-year-old African-American had no doubt.

“Yes, it did,’’ the Uphams Corner resident said. “And no, he wouldn’t. I don’t think it would have gotten that far.’’

On Centre Street in West Roxbury, another man named Jackson saw things differently. Noting that the man who arrested Gates, Sergeant James Crowley, had tried to resuscitate the late basketball star Reggie Lewis, an African-American, the 67-year-old said allegations of racial bias were off-base.

“I don’t think it was a racial incident at all,’’ said Paul Jackson, who is white. “[Gates] tried to make it a racial thing, which is unfortunate, but that was all his doing. I think the cop acted correctly.’’

Down the street, Charles King said Gates had only himself to blame for his arrest. Recalling a time he climbed through a window after locking himself out of his house, drawing police to the scene, King said he was polite and deferential, and thanked officers for arriving promptly.

“It all got squared away in no time,’’ said the 46-year-old, who is white. “I showed them my ID, with my home address on it, and that was that. I think this guy mouthed off, and things went from there.’’

But minorities, many of whom believed they had been victims of police bias in the past, said Gates had a right to be angry after being treated like a potential criminal in his own home, and that arguing with a police officer was no crime.

“I’d flip out, too,’’ said Keisha Montero, a 29-year-old African-American who lives in Uphams Corner. “I think this entire thing was racial, from the call to the police on.’’

Over at a small market plaza in Jamaica Plain, a diverse neighborhood, Shemetra Owens, 42, acknowledged yesterday that as an African-American she saw the case through a different racial lens.

Though she said she was sympathetic toward Crowley because some of her family members are police officers, she remained skeptical of his actions given the history of racial profiling in America.

“I think some police officers can use poor judgment,’’ said Owens, who lives in Roxbury. She also wondered whether individuals with fewer resources than Gates would have had the same advantages had they been in his situation.

“Would the charges have been dropped so quickly? Or would they have been made to wait in jail overnight and testify before a judge in the morning?’’ she asked.

In a country with a racial gap in wealth, Gates’s clash with Crowley also stirs discussions on class.

People should not think of the confrontation between Gates and Crowley as an isolated incident, some people interviewed for this article said. For some, like Jami Thompson, 45, of Roxbury, it evokes the police hostility those from lower-income backgrounds, including many minorities, can face.

Gates’s well-to-do Cambridge neighborhood, other minorities said, would have made passersby and police suspicious of a black man’s presence, Harvard professor or not.

“If he’s black in Boston, that’s no issue,’’ said Bryon Newberry, a 36-year-old from Dorchester. But near Harvard Square, “Police automatically assume he can’t live there, so something must be up.’’

From her front stoop on Columbia Road, Newberry’s friend, Kelley Senior, agreed that police would have been far more likely to give a white resident the benefit of the doubt when investigating a potential robbery.

“When a black man in Harvard Square forgets his keys, this is what happens,’’ she said. “If he were white, it’s a completely different situation.’’

Not everyone, however, viewed the situation through a racial prism.

Dana Silarais, a 32-year-old from West Roxbury, said he suspects that the incident was at its core a clash of wills. It’s the world at large, he said, that is fanning the racial element.

“I stand in that gray area,’’ said Silarais, who is white. “They both could have handled it differently.’’

Some minorities said they believed Gates stood alone in injecting race into the equation.

“Things have changed,’’ said Ernest Griffin, a 50-year-old African-American. “Not everything is black and white. The police were doing their job, and the professor overreacted. He should never get that apology.’’

In an attempt to stymie the racial controversy he helped stir just days before, the president telephoned Crowley on Thursday.

Obama offered the officer a well-received statement of regret in a conversation that ended with talk of the men gathering at the White House to share a beer.

“That is a great idea, but he needs to meet with them at Eire Pub instead,’’ said Jason McGuire, 35, of Roxbury.

The incident was not racial and Obama needs to apologize to the Cambridge police officer, said McGuire, who is white, and had been walking along Centre Street in Jamaica Plain.

At a small restaurant further down the street, Michelle Freeman, 28, sat waiting for her food with her 3-year-old daughter.

“He should have not made any comment in the first place. Being the president, he should have taken the high road and stayed out of it,’’ Freeman, who is white, said of Obama. “Then he would not have had to have this meeting.’’

But controversy began boiling before Obama even got involved, said Hollie Harder, 47, who was walking a few miles down the road from her home in Jamaica Plain.

“Part of the reason why there has been such a strong reaction by everyone is because race is still such a big issue in this country,’’ said Harder, who is also white. “There is a lot of baggage with this issue.’’

Arthur Graham, 45, is African-American and lives at the Bromley-Heath housing project in Jamaica Plain, where he says police officers have harassed residents.

“Not all cops are bad,’’ said Graham, who sells T-shirts and other memorabilia from various countries on the sidewalk on Centre Street. “But it happens . . . frisking people, checking people for warrants.’’

He does not know what truly happened the day Gates was arrested, he said, and cannot pass judgment on whether race played a part.

Perhaps, everyone was just having a bad day, he guessed. Still, the city’s race relations need to be improved, he said.

“The racism in Boston is not over, even though it is a lot better than it used to be,’’ Graham said. “But you cannot dwell on it and be angry.’’