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Posted by on May 1, 2015 in Blog, Politics | 0 comments

Baltimore

 

baltimore-riots

 

I don’t pretend to have much if any, a special insight into the civil unrest happening right now in Baltimore, and frankly, I’m a little perturbed that so many like me with vastly limited subject knowledge, no exposure whatsoever to the problems, and preconceived dare I say prejudicial attitudes of urban blight in America now posture themselves on authorities on events they know little or nothing about.  So quit pretending.

 

Having a Black friend who plays on your softball team doesn’t make you a scholar on urban affairs or an authority on race relations.  More like this — it just makes you a tool reverberating within the constant drumming of the conservative echo chamber.

Yes, I’m talking to you, ” Mr. and Mrs. Suburban White American.”

Yeah, it’s easy to judge, point our fingers, yell at our television screens, pontificate with your jokester buddies down at the local bar, and surmise all about “those people” ruining their own neighborhoods and doing utterly nothing to advance the noble cause of civil rights and social justice.  Gee, life is so simple isn’t it, so Black and White, in that alternative parallel universe where most of you, and certainly I, enjoyed immeasurable privileges and advantages since birth simply because we were lucky enough to be born on the proverbial right side of the tracks and not in a zone known as West Baltimore.

But what about all those born and now living on the other side of the B&B RR, including so many who are now choking on the fumes of burning buildings, their budding frustrations morphed to despair and finally bitter anger at being disproportional victims of police brutality, much harsher jail and prison sentences, institutionalized discrimination, and negative media-laced imagery?  How easy, and convenient, and disturbing self-satisfying is it for all the rest of us who don’t live in blighted neighborhoods to view what we see as entertainment, the reinforcement of suspicions about dangerous Black people so simple to damn with inflexible our conviction.

The Baltimore riots can’t be explained, nor can they be justified, by any simple manifestation of prose, nor scholarly study, nor fiery speeches from selfish opportunists on both sides of the debate who often treat violence in our society like panelists appearing on NFL Gameday, current events to be viewed and treated as sport.

Speaking of sport, one doesn’t normally associate a privileged baseball executive with launching brilliant social commentary, but when John Angelos, who serves as COO of the Baltimore Orioles recently commented on the riots happening in his own city, he really nailed the explanation as to at least some of the economic reasons for anger, especially in places like inner-city Baltimore where opportunities for so many either never existed or dried up.

When asked about the issue of seeing his beloved city in flames on a local sports-talk station, Mr. Angelos made the following comment:

….Speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society.  MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept.  Further, it is critical that in any democracy, the investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage, and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working-class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by the government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importance of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards.  We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

Yes, it’s more complex than just economics, but Mr. Angelos is onto something major.  Yet this doesn’t even touch on the problem of how law enforcement has become so militarized in America, and which segments of society suffer more on a day-to-day basis when they become engaged in conflict.

Mr. Angelos’ commentary is but one lonely voice which needs to be amplified and channeled to way more ears, not just in terms of our debate about race, but class and the lack of real economic opportunity in so many parts of America.

I fear that Baltimore is not an end, nor a final chapter.  Given the growing economic disparity, what we are now seeing on the streets of Baltimore might just be the beginning.

READ: More on Economic Blight in America

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