small potato

米国マサチューセッツ州でのハーバード大黒人教授の誤認逮捕はご存知のようにセンセーションを巻き起こしたようですが、オバマ大統領仲介による、ホワイトハウスでの"beer summit"により、和解に至ったようです。


Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Sunday joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House.

In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Barack Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run "profoundly deep" in the United States.

（中略）

"Racial profiling is a huge problem in this country and a serious problem, and I intend to devote my resources to fighting it," he said.

Gates called what happened to him "small potatoes," and said he is more concerned about people who don't have Harvard lawyers to represent them.
(Associated Press. August 2, 2009.)


黒人差別は根深い問題だとしつつも、逮捕の一件を"small potatoes"（ささいなこと）、と収めるのは度量が大きいのか、あるいは"beer summit"の効果なのでしょうか？