Richard Rowe
The frustrations resulting from structural racism, poverty and increasing social and emotional inequities were ignited April 25, 2015 in response to the death of Freddie Gray while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department. This death seemed to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
What ensued were several days of unrest that included rocks being thrown at police, fires being set at businesses in the community, peaceful demonstrations, spontaneous community clean up, and the coming together of many diverse individuals and groups to try to help.
For the record, Baltimore City has been in an “uprising waiting to happen” mode for a very long time. Even before the Baltimore riots of 1968, Baltimore was already two cities, one characterize by opulence, privilege and prosperity, and the other one trapped in a storm of entrenched poverty, despair and structural racism. And during Baltimore’s tale of two cities that were truly “separate and unequal” – two major sport stadiums were built, several downtown renaissances occurred and, most recently, a number of spacious, state-of-the art gambling casinos sprung up within the City lines to generate tax revenues and “special funds” earmarked to help pay for a litany of socio-economic pathologies plaguing Baltimore’s poor communities.
Since the uprising in April, monetary donations have poured into Baltimore to address critical, decades-long “separate and unequal” structural challenges that have been ignored and/or addressed with a tepid and specious City/community-wide coordinated strategy. Request for proposals have been meted out throughout the city like raindrops in April and more and more individual programs are being grant funded and supported to solve systemic and structural problems, even though it has been proven that the funding of individual programs-without a solid collaboration framework- is a failed strategy.
In addition, numerous local community organizations and foundations have sponsored several town hall meetings and invited local and national “thought-leaders” to offer their perspectives on the origins of the uprisings followed with recommendations to address numerous socio-economic problems.
So, the stage has been set in Baltimore – once again to “get it right.” And, in order to “get it right” this time, key community stakeholders must engage in serious, open, honest discussions about the city’s humiliating socio-economic “racial divide,” which would include:
-The uprising grew out of oppression and capricious cruelty that was perpetrated for decades.
-a lot of people in Baltimore(i.e., politicians, judges, lawyers, policemen, corporate leaders, religious leaders, teachers, heads of public agencies, CEOs of community programs, CEO’s of public/private partnerships, educators, etc.) have benefitted immensely from unjust, unequal and unfair laws and policies that have devastated Black families and communities..
To “get it right” this time, there must be a real discussion about the economic damages and the associated cost wrought by decades of segregated housing policies, an under-resourced school system that has produced thousands of under-educated black children, City/State sanctioned systemic concentrated poverty, and draconian zero-tolerance policies in schools and Black communities, which has resulted in an over-populated/over-resourced criminal justice system.
This is a moral moment and a moral challenge. Everyone in Baltimore is responsible for what happens going forward. Those that are prosperous and “privileged” most speak out and those who have been ignored for so long and left with so little must speak up. Everyone in Baltimore must be held accountable.
If not, then the city will never be able to arrive at a true remedy that will provide for many decades of real prosperity, progress and peace for all of its citizens.
Richard Rowe is the executive director of the African American Male Leadership Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. He can be reached at rrowe84@aol.com