Shared these thoughts and a few more with a reporter from CNN a few moments ago:

The arrest of Henry Louis Gates sends a chilling message to the scholars, writers, activists, and artists who work so hard to keep a free flow of information. It seems eerily ironic Mr. Gates was returning from China, where surveillance is so high and freedom of speech and ideas so curtailed. To see the "mugshot" of Skip was a blow to all of us who feel some sense of safety based on our work to try to mend all of these broken fences in America--to make ourselves into people who refuse to be limited by race and class and gender and everything else. We do this work every day, and it is work, just like any other. To end up, at the end of the day, treated like a criminal, unjustly stripped of our accomplishments and contributions even if only for a moment, is profoundly disturbing. We must ask ourselves what it means, and to allow ourselves to face various scenarios regarding power and freedom and how these will intersect in the coming years.

Read the article.