Beer and Cheer for Racial Profiling

I can't help but think that if a white man the same age etc. as Professor Gates was seen "breaking and entering" his own home and got questioned by the police as Gates did, he would have at least an equal amount of righteous indignation and semi-out-of control anger as Gates displayed.  It is hard to imagine for most white folks, and white men specifically, the continual burden of being looked at as a potential criminal or thought of as "questionable."

I am white but have adopted black children (and white children, I have 5 kids). I had a recent situation where my black son was surrounded by a small group of white girls at his camp and accused of stealing a pink Game Boy that went missing at LAST YEAR'S camp!! 52 weeks later they decide to accuse him of something he would never do.  How does this relate to Gates? My son experienced his first encounter with racial profiling.  Well, as his mother I felt true anger, not just in defense of him, although that was certainly there, but deep down social political rage. I felt betrayed for him.  

Out in the parking lot of the camp are lots of cars with Obama stickers on them.  That day I kept thinking what subtle messages of racism did these girls get from their parents or the media for example, that would encourage them to feel justified in questioning a black boy like that? How did they come to feel entitled enough to justify that kind of behavior? Were any of the girls parents Obama supporters, and if so where is the disconnect in what they believe and what their children do?  I know this sounds harsh, but racial profiling can be as blatant or as delicate as can be, nevertheless it is most certainly alive and well in the U.S.