It is well established that college professors too often interject their own presumptions and biases into the classroom, just as Prof. Gates did when he so brazenly cried racism as Sgt. Crowley was carrying out his responsibilities. It may not be as blatant and reckless as it was from the President and Prof. Gates; effective bias and prejudice can subtle in nature. From an English professor providing his own list of liberal "classics" as required reading, to the political science professor applying the term "neo-con" to any conservative he or she may wish, presumptions and bias are around every corner of American’s universities.
In another era, it would have been all too easy to simply accept both the President's and the Professor's quick judgment of Gates’ arrest. In 2009, Americans chose to examine the facts, to hear the testimony of Sgt. Crowley, to leave race out of the equation, and to come to their own conclusions. Students too are intelligent enough to catch the same liberal presumptions that are not-so-cleverly inserted into their classrooms. And, with the advent of the internet and alternative news sources, students today have the necessary resources at their fingertips to challenge any premise or presupposition that a hasty professor may imply.
This Fall, students should take on the responsibility of not accepting professors’ tendencies to rely on suppositions, but instead should question the very conjectures that irresponsible professors such as Gates "stupidly" interject.