The recent arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates by white police officers assuming he was breaking into his own home have once again raised the issue of racial profiling in America.

Mr. Gates is a distinguished professor, but he was apparently locked out of his own home and tired to bust in through the backdoor with his driver. Naturally suspicious at the sight of two men trying to push through a backdoor, a police officer stopped them and then asked for ID after the fact, supposedly, when it was made pretty clear that the homes did belong to Mr. Gates. Although his driver did handover his ID, Mr. Gates, supposedly, refused to agree to the officer’s request, or demand if you want, and, supposedly, adopted a confrontational tone [the police report quotes Mr. Gates calling the officer a “racist” and stating “this is what happens to black men in America.” Mr. Gates, on the other hand, has stated to the media that the police report is “full of [the officer’s] broad imagination.”] Mr. Gates was then arrested for disorderly conduct.

The Cambridge police department has since long released Mr. Gates and dropped all charges. But the media storm did not go away as Mr. Gates today attended talk shows and self-righteously defended his demeanor and all but explicitly called the police a racist, because the officer, supposedly, arrested Mr. Gates for no other reason than because a white police officer resented a black man standing up to him.

Notice my language, it is cautious because I do not want to attribute motives and was not their to witness what really happened and who is in the wrong. Personally, I think blacks come under undue suspicion quite often in American society. But this time given the circumstances it may have been merited and Mr. Gates may have just been needlessly confrontation due to his ego or even his own racial resentment. Whatever the case, I was not there and I am not suited to comment much further.

In his Wednesday night press conference, President Obama was asked about the incident and after prefacing his remarks with the acknowledgment that he was not there and does not know “the facts,” the president made a swiping judgment and stated that the police officers behaved “stupidly” for continuing to investigate Mr. Gates even after it was clear, supposedly, that it was his property.

In doing so, President Obama has entered the minefield that is American discourse on anything related to race. Mr. Gates has been incredibly partisan in the media and framed this as a solely white v. black issue. The police officer who made the arrest has, naturally, called President Obama’s prejudgment “disappointing” and has refused to issue an apology requested, or demanded if you want, by Mr. Gates.

President Obama should have stayed away from his issue. Not only it is a not so clear cut and rather trivial Bostonian matter, it would suck in the president into a debate that would right now distract from his domestic agenda [not that that is a bad thing]. There is a time for a thoughtful discussion on racial profiling on America. But that time is when Obama can frame the debate, but by entering into a debate framed by others he risks entering not into thoughtfulness but into partisan bickering that is often what discussions on race in American look like.

President Obama should have known better than to act “stupidly.”