The race row that has consumed America after a black scholar’s arrest by a white policeman took an explosive new turn yesterday when a Boston police officer was caught referring to the academic as a “banana-eating jungle monkey”.

The comments came just hours before President Obama sat down for perhaps the most widely televised beer in US history when, at a small white table in the Rose Garden, he drank with Henry Louis Gates Jr and Sergeant James Crowley to calm tension over the Harvard academic’s June 16 arrest.

Cameramen were only allowed 90 seconds, out of earshot, to film what looked like an awkward gathering, joined by Vice-President Joe Biden. Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates wore suits, while Mr Obama and Mr Biden had their jackets off, trying to look relaxed at event broadcast live by every news channel.

Hours before last night’s amiable get-together Boston police suspended Officer Justin Barrett, 36, who first e-mailed anonymously to The Boston Globe and then to friends in the local National Guard: “If I were the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey I would have sprayed him with OC [pepper spray].”

Edward Davis, the Boston police commissioner, stripped Officer Barrett of his gun and badge and placed him on administrative leave. He later said: “I didn’t mean it in a racist way.” The so-called White House beer summitt involved Mr Obama drinking a Bud Light, Professor Gates a Sam Adams Light and Sergeant Crowley a Blue Moon. Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates arrived with their families, who remained out of sight.

Afterwards Mr Obama described the meeting as a "friendly, thoughtful conversation".

Sergeant Crowley had been called to investigate a suspected burglary at Professor Gates’s house. The scholar had just returned from a foreign trip and had trouble opening his front door. The policeman said that when he confronted Professor Gates the academic became abusive.

After he established that no burglary had taken place, the policeman ended up arresting the Professor for disorderly conduct, handcuffing him and taking him down to the station. The charges were later dropped. Professor Gates has said that he was the victim of racial profiling.

Mr Obama, a friend of Professor Gates, fuelled the controversy when he accused the Cambridge police of acting stupidly. That triggered an outcry from police groups. Two days later Mr Obama expressed regret for his comment.

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