Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent Black Scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was arrested after forcing his way into his own house. Mr. Gates is director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

On the one hand, it is a good thing that this happened. It is a reminder to those who believe that by electing a man of color to the White House, racial profiling will suddenly go away. This case is also a reminder to the black elites that no matter what they have achieved in their lives, still, they can be victims of injustice.

A driver’s license and university ID card should have been enough to prove that Mr. Gates was not a criminal. This case puts America again in the spotlight — a country of contradiction. One day progress is made, another day there is a regression.

What we can learn from this situation is that no matter who you are as a black man, you are not immune from racial profiling. As the Kikuyu of Kenya say, “Crows are black everywhere.”