Sgt Lashley and the Blue Code

( ArtMaggot)

Dear Sgt. Leon Lashley:



After 25 years of serving the Cambridge police department, and you have only made the rank of sergeant, it's understandable that you don't want to be labeled as an Uncle Tom. But, you probably don't understand what it truly means to be an Uncle Tom. It's the get along Negro pretending to love the master.

Many of us have worked with folks like Sgt. James Crowley. You know those folks who say one or two of my best friends are black. We do our jobs, and the Sgt. James Crowleys' of the world believe we like them, but we don't. We know the Crowleys' of the world will use inappropriate words and language especially racial and sexual jokes, but not in our presence.

We mitigate the rage by sucking it up or biting the bullet, feeling powerless in working for someone else or in their workplace. Some of us excuse the survival behavior as playing the martyr. Becoming tortured souls, in a toxic environment believing our psychic is strong enough to weather whatever the Sgt. James Crowleys' of the world throw our way making it better for the next generation.

President Barack Obama is a prime example.

We are willing to Uncle Tom it to get a paycheck or a prominent position. We do it for the family as we harbor a disdain for those we work for and for those we work with. But a few of us, refuse to turn the other cheek. These brave souls, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Meredith, demanding to be called a man and Rosa Parks refusing to be assigned a designated place. These folks woke up and said no more Uncle Tomming, no more pretending everything is great with the world, they stood up.

Sgt. Crowley's battle was not your battle. Your battle was being with a police department for 26 years with the rank of sergeant. So that fact alone was enough for folks to say, you are Uncle Tomming it to a pension. So we knew you had to Uncle Tom it up. That is if you were to have any peace in that police department. No need to feel any shame.

Some feel that Dr. Henry Gates has Uncle Tommed his way,from your colleague Sgt. Crowely man handled him in his space (his house). Dr. Gates, accomplishments, just like your 26 years, would not protect him from ever being treated less than a man in his raced white neighborhood.

Disorderly Conduct-09-05127 On 7/16/09 at 12:44 PM, 58-year-old Henry Gates of 17 Ware St. Cambridge, MA was arrested for Disorderly conduct after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior.

You know those folks who say one or two of my best friends are black

In closing, you and Dr. Gates are more alike than differences. The singular thing that you and Crowley are alike is the uniform and the truth, once you take off that uniform you become more like Dr. Gates.

As we read your letter: