In a new Daily Beast column, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s daughter Elizabeth gives her report on yesterday evening's White House event. After starting off poorly by calling Sgt. Crowley "infamous", Gates adds:
As our family rounded the corner to the White House library and I first caught sight of Sergeant Crowley’s lovely 14-year old daughter—who was wearing an appropriately heavy and charmingly untrained amount of green eyeliner on her lower lashes—we were instantly transported from the post-racial myth of America in 2008 to the reality of 2009.
Ah, the lovely transition from condescension to pomposity. Gates informs us in her byline that she "is a graduate of The New School University, where she cultivated her love for fashion and writing." This must mark the first time in human history that the word "cultivate" has worked its way into a one-sentence author bio.
For more interesting takes on the Gates controversy, check out Michael Kinsley and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
--Isaac Chotiner