Michael “Doc” Woods, professor of music, wrote a guest editorial for the Utica Observer-Dispatch (8/2/09) titled “Paying the price of being talented – and black.” The piece discussed the recent controversial arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates and described Woods’ experience of racial profiling when he was followed by a police car after stopping to ask for directions to a symphony office.
“At lunch, I was asked questions as if I was not being honest when I said that I was a music professor at a college,” Woods wrote. “Finally, I was followed again by police to the edge of the main highway when I left.
“What did they think I was going to do, steal some scores? I felt humiliated. I felt as if I was a criminal. My only sin was being talented and ambitious and black.
He continued, “It is difficult for professional blacks to live on the edge where their entire resume can be over looked just by their skin color in a moment of time and on a single incident,” Woods wrote. “America is still a great place and the best efforts of all of its people are needed to meet our challenges.”
“At lunch, I was asked questions as if I was not being honest when I said that I was a music professor at a college,” Woods wrote. “Finally, I was followed again by police to the edge of the main highway when I left.
“What did they think I was going to do, steal some scores? I felt humiliated. I felt as if I was a criminal. My only sin was being talented and ambitious and black.
He continued, “It is difficult for professional blacks to live on the edge where their entire resume can be over looked just by their skin color in a moment of time and on a single incident,” Woods wrote. “America is still a great place and the best efforts of all of its people are needed to meet our challenges.”
