Professor Gates, you can keep those chains.

In a further attempt to mask America’s social ills with levity, Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates is donating his infamous handcuffs to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. You remember awhile back when Gates was arrested for “Breaking In” to his own house by an overzealous Sgt James Crowley. His white neighbor called the police on him because she noticed a suspicious character around “His” house. The incident touched off a faux racial firestorm. Some black officers stepped up to defend Crowley – even in the face of Uncle Tom taunts. President Obama was rebuked by white folks for “defending his own” in his response to the incident. And for a brief moment (extremely brief) black folks thought they saw the real 1st black president. But in the end, everything was brushed over with Beer and Peanuts at the White House.

How did Gates get those handcuffs you might wonder? Apparently Gates received the handcuffs from Crowley when they met for a drink after the “White House Beer Summit.” Again you are wondering why Crowley gave him the handcuffs. Maybe Gates asked for them because he is a collector of slave memorabilia? Or maybe Crowley wanted him to have a reminder of his walk of shame to the precinct. Either way, the National Museum of African American History and Culture does not need those handcuffs. I would rather see the handcuffs that were used on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz aka Malcolm X and any of the participants (Known and Unknown) in the Civil Rights Movement. But I don’t want to see the handcuffs that were put on Gates. His chains don’t represent Black History. They represent the covering up of it.