Last call came before Beer Summit got to the bottom of racial profiling

Rainier Spencer is a man you'd like to have a beer with. Make that a Mexican beer.

Tecate, Corona. One of those icy and exotic brands that conjure images of sandy beaches on the tip of Baja a million miles from the noise of daily life.

These days, that distant beach is the only place you'll be able to escape the odd, overblown Thursday "Beer Summit" at the White House hosted by Bartender in Chief Barack Obama.

Cameras and reporters were kept 50 feet away from the seemingly solemn patio party, perhaps to prevent them from overhearing a less-than-presidential Bud Light belch. Clearly, the moment was meant to provide a uniting symbol while simultaneously placing a coda on a controversy that has diminished the president's popularity while he tries to focus on health care reform.

America has no shortage of examples of racism and racial profiling, but the recent dust-up between Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley just isn't one of them.

That's the biggest problem with the story, says Spencer, a professor at UNLV's Department of Anthropology & Ethnic Studies and the 2006 author of "Challenging Multiracial Identity."

The other problem, of course, is that President Obama misspoke when he accused the Cambridge police of "acting stupidly" in arresting Gates for disorderly conduct. The charges were later dropped, and Obama has since apologized for shooting from the lip. He said he hoped the sipping of the suds would provide a "teachable moment."

Fast-forward to Thursday's corny photo-op featuring Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in shirt sleeves and Gates and Crowley in suits, looking as comfortable as a couple of guys waiting to be called before a grand jury. They had mugs of beer in front of them like the gang at a really uptight version of "Cheers." Perhaps Biden was present to remind the world he's not the only one who occasionally speaks "stupidly."

For scholars who give serious thought to the role of race in America, the Beer Summit didn't provide much of a teachable moment. It provided a reason to cringe.

"I do think it's a farce," Spencer says. "I wouldn't say it's negative, but I would say it has no impact on anything. ... It's neutral. It's meaningless. I think that what really happened was captured by Obama's second foray into this that people lost their heads on both sides who shouldn't have."

After all the media hype, the meeting was more C.Y.A. than Kumbaya, something Spencer says had more the feel of damage control than meaningful dialogue.

"This isn't an issue of racial profiling," he says. "It's not a teachable moment unless you want to talk about people losing their cool. You don't need to have a national conversation about that."

Symbols are important. Americans are often moved to action by the symbolic gestures of their president. And there was undeniable symbolism in Obama being open enough to admit a mistake about a racial issue and to bring the disparate parties together.

The problem is, the gesture is a squishy one. It's a hollow anecdote. Gates, the black scholar, and Crowley, the progressive white peace officer, provided a Candy Land example of the real problem with racial profiling, especially since it's been established no profiling actually took place.

That takes the bubbles out of the beer.

"You have the wrong person there," Spencer says. "It shouldn't be Henry Louis Gates there. It should be a guy who actually gets profiled."

Such flawed symbolism is too easy and sends the message that racism is a fast-fading phenomenon. (Look no further than the Web posts for the Review-Journal story on the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Kevin Franchow for an example of racism in this community.)

"The danger is that racists don't change on their side, but those of us who need to be vigilant about it let our guard down," Spencer says. "Things are not better. Things are completely unchanged. That's the danger where you get this kind of face-saving, damage control at the White House that maybe has a negative effect with people on the street who are really not serviced by the beer summit. Regular people are not helped."

So, if you'll excuse him, Spencer will raise his glass when the silly symbolism ceases and the serious discussion begins.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.