{"id":5389,"date":"2015-05-16T12:45:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T17:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=5389"},"modified":"2015-05-16T12:55:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T17:55:22","slug":"in-a-hard-town-by-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=5389","title":{"rendered":"In a Hard Town by the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title of this essay comes from Randy Newman’s 1977 song “Baltimore<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

As something of a wanna-be pundit, I find the recent “civil disturbances” in Baltimore (triggered by a fatal police incident) very frustrating because it is so difficult to digest and say anything useful about. Ditto for Ferguson, New York, Berkeley, Cleveland, and the other sites of current unrest over police shootings. The 1960’s (especially 1967) were a time of many civil disturbances in major cities (Detroit, Newark, Watts, Roxbury, etc.), where African American communities vented similar anger about aggressive police actions. It was fairly clear back then that the triggering police acts were just a spark that ignited a volatile underlying anger, which stemmed from a multitude of unjust social and economic conditions faced by black communities. And it seems reasonable enough to conclude that the same applies to the angst and frustration expressed by African-American leaders and communities responding to more recent police shootings involving unarmed victims such as Amadou Diallo, Michael Brown, Kimani Gray, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, et al. Police bias is certainly a part of it, but is far from the extent of it. <\/p>\n

Unlike the 1960’s, however, it is more difficult for the nation as a whole to grasp the overarching social and economic injustices involved, and to see what can be done to fix them. The starting point for those who decry these injustices is racism, of course. The many fatal police incidents in and of themselves allegedly prove that racism is alive and well in the American criminal justice system, and thus by implication is rampant throughout all of our social institutions, large and small. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, however, when you look at the details of at least some of these police incidents, the alleged racist inspirations become more and more difficult to pin down. In some, it seems pretty clear that the mental equation “dark skin = likely criminal” was driving the situation. In others, that’s not so clear. Each case has its own nuances. In many cases, the victim himself appeared to have helped to escalate the situation by attempting to flee or otherwise resist arrest, and in some cases aggressively attacking the officers involved (at least it is claimed). In most instances, “good police practices” would arguably have not required the use of fatal force; by the same token, “good citizen practices” in dealing with police might also have helped avoid the unfortunate outcomes. Various psychological research on \u201cimplicit bias<\/a>\u201d has shown that white police often have subconscious racial biases in terms of evaluating how dangerous or guilty a given person might be. These tests also show that non-white police share<\/a> approximately the same biases. <\/p>\n

The responses to the recent Baltimore police killing of Freddy Gray have expanded beyond police injustice as to include the broader issues of poverty and economic destitution as suffered by many communities with large numbers of low-income African Americans, e.g. the Sandtown neighborhood in Baltimore. It’s obviously a bit harder to paint<\/a> the Gray killing purely in racial terms, given that 3 of the 6 police officers were black, and the police chief and mayor of Baltimore are both black. <\/p>\n

There is obviously a strong connection between poverty and criminal activity, such that even if it can’t be definitively established that institutional racism in the criminal justice system regularly victimizes innocent black citizens, it seemingly can be argued that ongoing racism throughout our political and economic institutions<\/a> is forcing too many blacks into lives where crime is sometimes the best of the bad options open to them. Overall, the 2008 \u201cGreat Recession\u201d was especially cruel to blacks<\/a> of all economic standings. For example, the ratio of white to black family household net worth was 6 in 2001; by 2013, it doubled, to 12 (i.e., the average white American family has 12 times the household net worth of the average black family!). With regard to income, the percent change between 2009 to 2014<\/a> in real median income per capita was -2.6% for whites; for blacks, the number is -7.7%.<\/p>\n

Personally, I agree that racism is not gone in America, and that its ugly legacy continues in both our criminal justice system and in our political and economic institutions. Admittedly, if a purely colorblind society could be achieved (and it probably could not), most of the victims of police shootings named above would probably be alive today. However, this does not definitely prove that the police and political leaders involved in these incidents are racists. As in Baltimore, the discussion is sometimes (not always, of course) focused more around the “secondary” or on-going effects<\/a> of past racist practices than around the discriminatory decisions of any one modern official; or around sub-conscious, unintentional attitudes about skin color and racial background that continue today, sometimes with a partial level of justification depending upon the social context.<\/p>\n

Given all of that, the big question becomes — WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CHANGE THIS, TO MAKE THINGS BETTER? Back in the 1960’s, it was easy for well-meaning reform-minded people to identify a variety of things that were holding African Americans and their communities back. These things were amenable to change by law or by economic or programmatic aid. Thus, President Lyndon Johnson oversaw the enactment of legislation outlawing institutional racial discrimination, and providing federal programs that would make life better for the victims of centuries of racial economic injustice (i.e., the Great Society social programs).
\n\u00a0
\nUnfortunately, we are in a different place today. Many “Great Society” programs continue to focus attention on the urban and rural poverty that blacks suffer disproportionately in our nation (albeit, at near-starvation funding levels). Affirmative action policies and voting law protections also continue, although they are increasingly being attacked by conservative politicians. But it is now approaching 50 years since these things started, and even though much progress was made, the Baltimore incident shows that government programs are not a panacea<\/a>. A lot of conservatives argue that they are in fact the problem, that they promote dependency<\/a> that locks families into poverty. <\/p>\n

Personally I don’t agree, but by the same token, I wonder if government intervention has pretty much “picked the low hanging fruit”, has mostly accomplished what it can accomplish, and is now facing challenges that it finds increasingly difficult<\/a> to respond to. Such as the problems of drug addiction, inadequate student performance in schools, one-parent families, and low wage levels offered in the workplace to people who lack specialized technical training.
\n\u00a0
\nI can understand why black leaders continue to cry out for something to be done in response to these ongoing problems. But again, just what can be done by government today to respond to them is a very problematic issue. Fifty years into “the Great Society”, we seem to be well into “diminishing returns” territory. Programs that might yet help some families are increasingly expensive, and thus less and less politically sustainable in an increasingly contentious and polarized political climate. One rising star among modern black thinkers, Ta-Nesesi Coates, seems to have given up on lobbying for more poverty aid and employment programs, and contends that one-shot payments to blacks as reparations for slavery<\/a> (and the following generations of repression) are the only thing that can and should be done, courtesy of the power of the federal government. He certainly has a lot of good points and compelling arguments, but in a Tea Party world, his proposals are non-starters. Right or wrong, they just ain’t gonna happen. The guilt card isn’t going to work, even if morally justified. Not in an America that elected Barack Obama<\/a> president (and where a potential black Republican candidate is not laughed off the map). <\/p>\n

In fact, the more that black leaders and their well-intended white political supporters continue to push for high level governmental interventions in response to the recent “black community uprisings”, the more chance for reactionary responses on the part of conservative political forces. Even though the “black solidarity” of the 1960s led to many well-needed reforms in our government and society, it also helped to motivate a political countercurrent that helped to elect Richard Nixon as President in 1968, and thereafter paved the way for a series of increasingly conservative GOP Presidents (most notoriously Ronald Reagan and Bush the second). And even a Democratic President helped to undo many of the family supports enacted in the 1960s, i.e. Bill Clinton’s welfare reform (and yes, that is Bill Clinton’s baby, as he embraced it even if Newt Gingrich made it clear that he couldn’t avoid it). <\/p>\n

I certainly am not saying that black leaders should stay quiet in the face of the many tragedies and injustices that their followers continue to suffer. But I hope that they will recognize that the situation is a lot more complex than it was in 1962 or 67. To be honest, I don’t think that Hilary Clinton’s election in 2016 is a certainty, and to the degree that conservatives continue to paint minority reactions to police shootings as a direct threat to non-affluent white families, the election of a Scott Walker or Marco Rubio becomes more and more imaginable. Louis Farrakhan is famous for putting out unrepresentative statements like “we will tear this goddam country up<\/a>\u201d; but even a more moderate Tavis Smiley recently said that protests and riots could become \u201cthe new normal<\/a>\u201d in America because of ongoing racism and poverty. To the degree that black leaders and their white supporters appear to threaten white<\/a> working-class families (something that the great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. intentionally avoided), who themselves are struggling in a very difficult and fast-changing economic landscape, they will pave the way for more GOP victories, despite the “new demographics<\/a>” and “Obama coalition<\/a>” that some hail as guaranteeing most future presidencies to the Democrats. <\/p>\n

So that’s what so frustrating about thinking and writing about Freddy Gray and Baltimore. It’s extremely difficult to put out a viable plan to heal the underlying illness; about the only thing I can suggest right now is that vocalizing the issue in the wrong way might make things even worse, given today’s political realities. (Admittedly, that thought is not much of a positive contribution.) I have spent a fair percentage of my adult career involved with a major urban area that suffers from similar maladies as Baltimore (i.e., Newark and Essex County, NJ). I previously worked for an urban redevelopment agency, helping to gain and manage federal grant funds from programs started in the late 60s. I now work in criminal justice. <\/p>\n

I have thus interacted with people like Freddy Gray, and the cops that did him in. The efforts I have been involved with (both non-profit and criminal justice) definitely do lots of people lots of good, but they don’t change the tide. If we got a whole lot more money to vastly expand these programs, I’m still not sure that they would make the problems go away. These programs are in some ways wasteful and inefficient, and in many ways subject to diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

Thus, I’m admittedly a bit pessimistic about what can be done, other than hoping for renewed economic growth that will lift all boats, as happened in the 1990s (when the number of civil disturbances<\/a> hit a record low, the Rodney King riots in LA notwithstanding). But I’m open to new ideas<\/a> as to what could bring opportunity and hope back to neighborhoods like Sandtown in Baltimore and Newark’s West Ward (as well as to ideas about how to make sure that police do their jobs professionally, especially in challenging environments like those two neighborhoods).
\n\u00a0
\nIf Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tavis Smiley and other black voices could offer some positive suggestions along with their demands for justice, I think they would get a lot more political traction. Playing the guilt card<\/a> for the sins of three or more generations ago just ain’t gonna cut it, even if white Americans still benefit from those ancient sins (although this isn’t so cut and dry either; unlike in Europe of old, more personal wealth today is of fairly recent creation, versus inheritance<\/a>; thus, if significant parts of the population such as urban and rural black families continue to lag in their economic achievement, we all are somewhat the poorer for it, given our highly inter-dependent economy). Show us some schools, community police boards, housing programs and job preparation centers that really are making a difference to the poor. Show us how we might all be better off. At that point, I’d feel a whole lot less frustrated thinking and writing (and even working in) places like Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this essay comes from Randy Newman’s 1977 song “Baltimore“. As something of a wanna-be pundit, I find the recent “civil disturbances” in Baltimore (triggered by a fatal police incident) very frustrating because it is so difficult to digest and say anything useful about. Ditto for Ferguson, New York, Berkeley, Cleveland, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5391,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions\/5391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}