Obama backtracks from original press conference statement re treatment of Henry Louis Gates.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=07&year=2009&base_name=this_is_what_happens_to_a_blac

Here's a link to coverage of Obama's brief press conference statement, which seemed to be geared primarily to the White House press corps--and took too much refuge in formal, rather than plain-spoken language: http://news.aol.com/article/critics-charge-obama-is-anti-police/587294

Unfortunately, some white people still get upset when African Americans speak out on the subject of racial discrminiation/profiling. I'm old enough to remember when then-Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley was criticized in 1992 for expressing anger with the Simi Valley "not guilty" verdicts for the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King the previous year.

[UPDATE 7/27/09: It's now being revealed that the original 911 call from a neighbor made no mention of race: http://news.aol.com/article/henry-louis-gates-jr-911-call/589068.]