Courageous
Mothers of West Baltimore: America's 'Tiger Moms' (Corriere Della Sera, Italy)
"How is Baltimore
different than Ferguson? One answer comes from the symbolic image-of-the-moment
which has emerged from the madness that struck this Maryland city: African-American
mothers are going out to take back their black hoodie-clad sons. They look
menacing, but these mother-tigers, different in their anguish from those in
Asia who push their children toward scholastic excellence, grab their kids by
the scruff of the neck, slapping and shoving them away from looting and
burning."
Looting and burning in
the center of Maryland, just 25 miles from Washington, after the violent death
of young Black man Freddy Gray. But here, unlike in Ferguson, African-American
mothers are going out and pulling their children off the streets.
In Ferguson the problem, on top of police violence, was
identified by the lack of representation: the mayor and police chief the black suburbs
of St. Louis, were White. In Baltimore, however, the mayor [Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake] is a woman of color, daughter of a revered leader of the
battle for civil rights and a democrat who has decided to go all out to determine
who is responsible for the death of Freddie Gray, a young Afro-American who
died on April 12 from a fractured spine suffered during his arrest. The police
chief, Anthony Batts, who is also Black, has already
accused the six police officers who arrested Gray: who are at the very least responsible
for failing to provide medical assistance. For this he has come under
fire from the police union.
In Baltimore, also unlike Ferguson, the victim’s family
hasn't fanned the flames of unrest, instead demanding peaceful and dignified
protest. Religious leaders, united, have urged people to express their anger in
a civilized manner. And when the looting began, Christian pastors took to the
streets along with Muslim leaders from the Nation of Islam and went around pulling
Black kids from devastated shops to send them home.
Let us consider the meaning to the term: "Baltimore is
not Ferguson."
In Baltimore, the unrest has in some ways been even worse
than that which erupted in Ferguson: looting and burning in broad daylight,
bands of children without even their faces masked, and gangs who are usually divided
by a deep hatred of one other working together to ambush police, and so a state
of emergency, the arrival of National Guard troops in armored cars and a
curfew, impressed like an indelible mark on a glorious city with a great historic
and cultural heritage just 25 miles from the capital, Washington.
So how is Baltimore different? One answer comes from the
symbolic image-of-the-moment which has emerged from the madness that struck this
Maryland city: African-American mothers are going out to take back their black
hoodie-clad sons. They look menacing, but these mother-tigers, different in
their anguish from those in Asia who push their children toward scholastic
excellence, grab their kids by the scruff of the neck, slapping and shoving them
away from looting and burning. These are boys brought up in the neglect of slums
and often from broken families. Many have never known a father’s authority. And
their working mothers, who in desperation tear their hair trying to keep their
kids from getting into trouble, can do little to prevent them camping out on sidewalks
of the ghetto. School is merely a hopeless place to park them (assuming they
actually go to school in the morning).
So the bridge over the highway that connects the suburbs of
West Baltimore in which sits the Gilmor Homes - the
desolate public housing quarter where Freddie Gray grew up -instead of being a
link with the city center and Baltimore University, ends up being a border. On one
side is the ghetto; on the other, affluence and White society. The gulf between
the two worlds is not just about economic conditions, with poverty and
unemployment rampant in these Western districts: Blacks who want to study and have
a positive attitude can obtain scholarships and graduate, but with the social
fabric so devastated in neighborhoods infested with drugs and disillusionment, those
who want to liberate themselves must show tremendous inner strength. They have
to work hard often without family support and stand up to friends who treat them
like “traitors”, as if they are people who aspire to a "White man's life."
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Black Unrest in America: The 'Middle Class Effect' (Handelsblatt, Germany)
This is also why, a year after the creation of a White House
task force to address racial problems, that rioting continues to recur and has
now reached the gates of the capital. The first commandment distilled from Obama's
wise men: the policeman of the 21st century must be a guardian of society who
defends public order but also takes care to win the confidence of the
community. These are words that have failed to diminish the implacable police
interventions in America' suburban hells: at least 12,000 unarmed Black have
been killed in the last 18 months. So while in Baltimore, African-Americans are
saying “enough,” in Annapolis, another suburb of Washington - the White one
with its military academies - what has manifested is support for police who “do
a tough job to protect citizens and should not allow themselves be intimidated.”
