Fundamental Concepts - Dear Black Baltimore Rioter [Weirddave]

I'd like to take just a moment to chat with you if I may. I realize that you probably don't want to talk to me, all your life you've been told that I am the enemy, the cause of everything that you think is wrong with your life. I'm evil. I'm greedy. I'm white. I'm “rich”. I'm racist. I'm Republican. I'm an entire litany of evil, and you know what? For the sake of this conversation, I'll stipulate all of it. I am evil, white, racist and rich. I am Republican and racist. I'm every negative stereotype and every oppressor, real and imagined, that has had a negative effect on you or your ancestor's lives, going back to when they lost a war in Africa and were captured and sold to slave traders. All of that. For the purpose of this discussion, I'm not going to contest any of it. That being said, I have one simple question for you:

Do you realize that you're being manipulated and used?

Don't get mad at me, it's not me that's using you, it's the folks who claim to be on your side. Really. Lets look at all of them, and weigh them against the evil, racist, white greedy me that I've agreed to play for the purpose of our discussion.

Let's start with the obvious: Al Sharpton. Jesse Jackson. The Rainbow Coalition. That skinny little black kid who showed up with a thousand social media connections after the demonstrations started, you know, the one whose talking about his experience in Ferguson or Seattle or New York. You think these folks are “down with the struggle”? You think they are here because of the great injustice that five-oh visits on you every day? Man, what the fuck are you smoking?

Dude, do you know what you are to them? You're product, Homes, nothing but merchandise for the story they are selling. Al Sharpton hangs in New York, eating lunch every day at exclusive clubs with white folks who are a lot more like what you imagine me to be than I actually am. They smile at Al, shake his hand, give him checks and congratulate themselves on just how non-racist they are before going home to their gated communities where you would be tasered within an inch of your life by security if you dared knock on the door. Jessie Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition? Do you know what they do? They take in millions and millions of dollars from corporations so that Jessie can declare the corporation “progressive” or “diverse” enough so that when riots like these happen, hopefully you'll leave them alone. It's a protection racket, pure and simple, but let me ask you a question: Of all of the millions upon millions of dollars that they take in, do you ever see them in your neighborhood spending any of that money? To rebuild, to renew, to invest, to help? I didn't think so. Those “activists” ? They live to run from fire to fire to brag on themselves. Dude's got no job, no home, no woman. He shows up and fucks your woman while crashing in your basement. He's part of the revolution, man, he's the vanguard of a brave new world, but right now that “brave new world” consists of pussy and status for him, while you're out chucking rocks at the BPD and choking on tear gas. You might want to think about your respective roles in this great struggle.

Alright, what about the police? No question they are on the other side, and no question that they have way overstepped their authority at times. Eyefuck five-oh for a millisecond too long and they’re going to the nightsticks. Bastards gave Freddie Grey a “rough ride” and broke his damn back. Surely we can crucify the BPD, right? Well... maybe. And maybe. Whatever crimes the police have committed in the past, rioting simply gives them the ability to clock overtime at an alarming rate. They face off with you, you face off with them; shouts, tear gas, rocks. They move back. You advance. They advance. You move back. It's a giant kabuki dance of outrage, and generally nobody gets hurt very bad, but the police are getting paid double time to engage in it, what are you getting paid? Nothing, huh? Hmmmm.

Well, surely the government will do something. Really? They tell you that they are “there for you”. They claim that you need to elect them so they can “represent you”. They promise to “make things better”. Dude, you live in Baltimore. The goddamn government has been black and democrat for 50 years! What has that gotten you?

Here's an exercise. Let's stand on North Broadway, just above Johns Hopkins, say right where Gay Street crosses. We're right by that triangular house that I like to refer to as “Baltimore's Flatiron Building” (It's not even close). As we walk north towards the Great Blacks in Wax museum, count the number of burned out or boarded up homes. 1..2..3...5..8...13..There are a lot of them. Some of them are pretty neat, with Arabian styling. All of them are pretty big and would make great homes for your family(or mine). This is what government has done. They take your money, and your votes, and this is what they leave you. They're just another entity dedicated to enriching itself at your expense.

I could mention the federal government and give more examples, or the Democrat party or the media or public sector unions. It doesn't matter. All of them want you where you are, right now, frozen in time. You're poor, black, undereducated, underemployed, ANGRY and violent. All of these things serve their interests, and keep them in money or power.

This is you:

This is you:

This is you:

Need I go on?

So here you are. Angry. Poor. Looting. Some jackass took your picture running out of the CVS with a handful of smokes and a DVD, and now BPD has arrested you. You're looking at an overwhelmed PD trying to plead you down to a misdemeanor, but even if she's successful she called you by the wrong name and you're still going to have to do 3 months in City Jail. Great fucking world we have here, huh? Always keeping the black man down, and so you hate, and you fight, and you seethe.

Which is exactly what they count on your doing. As long as you keep doing that, all of the folks above stay in the gravy. You ever see them at the corner of Etting and Gold? Their kids are on the college track at City and Poly, why are yours dodging gangs at Douglass? You're being manipulated and used, and as long as they keep your attention on boogeyman me, they can suck your bones dry.

On. The. Other. Hand.

Over here there's me. Remember me? I'm the evil, greedy, rich, racist white guy (waves). You've been told all you life that I LIVE to oppress you, that's it, that's all I do. Fair enough, I've agreed to accept that mantle for the purposes of this thread. So I, evil,white, racist, rich guy that I am, have managed to get you to riot in your own neighborhood. This is what you've been told, right? OK.....Why?

Why?

No, tell me, why?

What have I gained? I've demonstrated what those “on your side” have gained, what have I gained? Money, Jobs, Power, Influence? I have gained none of those things. You could burn Sandtown/Winchester to the ground and it would have zero effect on my life. Look at Detroit. It IS burned to the ground for all practical purposes and yet all around it suburbs are full of people living nice middle class lives. Brutal truth: You don't matter enough in my life for me to hate you. Burn down all the CVSs you want, I have a nice big Wal-Mart half a mile from my house. What have you got? A burned out shell and a bunch of old folks who can't get up to the Plaza to get their prescriptions filled.

So what is my motivation? I don't care about you. Maybe you'll claim that I should, and maybe you're right, but the truth of the matter is I don't care about you now, in those pictures above. You want to riot and fight and burn and steal and hate? Knock yourself out. I don't care, it's your neighborhood being destroyed, not mine. All of those people above? I have them to keep you in your neighborhood and out of mine because as I've demonstrated, they want your life to stay shit.

However, it's not true that I don't care about you, the individual, in the abstract. I do, a lot, and so do my neighbors. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: What do white folks say about inner city blacks when there's just us around? 85% of the time I hear variations on “What the hell is wrong with those people?”, the implication being that there's no reason for you to be burning all that shit down, yo. Go to school, study, get a job, be productive. That's what we expect from you, it's what we expect from our own kids, it's the life we live ourselves. Just because you're black doesn't mean that you're incapable of doing that, we're surrounded daily by middle class black folks that do just that. They live with us, their kids go to school with our kids and date our daughters (really). Thomas Sowell is a black man who came from poverty, and he's the smartest man in America. Clarence Thomas did the same, and he's on the SCOTUS. Ben Carson had a childhood as rough as any in east or west B-more, and he's the greatest pediatric neurosurgeon in the world, and he's running for president to boot. Lots and lots of “racist” white folks supporting him too. Next time you see a car with a Carson bumper sticker, take a peek at the color of the folks driving, bet you a dollar they're white.

In short, there are two groups of people orbiting your little East Baltimore neighborhood. One group is telling you incessantly that the world is stacked against you, that you have no chance at life and they are profiting off of you believing that. Stop listening to them. Please. I saw plenty of film of the riots. Honestly, on one level, it looked like fun. Smash, burn, steal, yell, run, party. Fun, I'm not lying, it looked like fun. But the cost! Your neighborhood is now worse. You have neighbors who lost their jobs because businesses left. Sure, that selfie to took with your hands full of Ciroc bottles looted from the liquor store went viral, and that's cool, but the po po have that image too, and they're tracking you down, was the vodka worth 6 months in juvie? They're like a giant tick on your back, whispering in your ear “Go on, fuck shit up. Bastards deserve it”. Only problem is that it's your shit you're fucking up, and the worse your life gets, the fatter and more engorged they get on your blood.

On the other side you have my group, the evil, racist, greedy white rich folk. I'm going to shed that mantle soon, because I'm none of those things, but I'll keep it for one more paragraph. What is our message? You can do it. This is the greatest land of opportunity in the world, and we want you to be part of it. All you have to do is believe it, and, much harder, go against all of the people claiming to be on your side. Somebody wants to keep you down alright, but it's not “The man” as you've been taught all your life, it's them. Don't let them.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:57 AM

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