I could be way off base but I would guess that this is not a racial incident but a class clash. On the one hand you have a guy sitting in his own home, who is used to receiving respect and deference, while at the same time, as he says, he is a guy who has problems hailing a cab. On the other you have a probably young-ish, probably middle or working class guy, all dressed up in his repect uniform, now in charge of a minor incident, with his buddies coming to watch. When this latter guy is right in the middle of his act-like-a-cop performance it is exactly the wrong time for him to receive a verbal lashing from *anyone,* much less an older egghead professor.

Pick your battles sure, and Gates probably has a righteous claim, but you also pick the timing.