Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie Gray

[The Hue]

A lot of niggas in here need to do heavy research on the practice of redlining, it was crucial in the creation of the hood and was used as a tool to keep blacks there. Banks were denying mortgage loans to black folks with perfect credit scores.

 

[manofmorehouse]

Not at all. I say civil rights movement because whites gave us a glimmer of their American dream and we fell for the okie doke and thought we were now equals. We've been content with bullshit ever since.

And I don't give a fuck about what others are doing. I'm talking solutions for us as a whole. If not allowing excuses to fuck up your goal of being the greatest person u can be makes me republican, so be it. For the record, I'm independent. Democrats are just as horrible in their record of doing for African Americans as republicans. What was the last great thing done by any party to better the lives of African Americans? ? But, every man has their own life to live. Hopefully the logic you hold works for u bruh. In all sincerity.

For one, a democratic president made it so millions of blks now have health coverage

While the GOP has fought tooth and nail to deny their constituents of this right

Obamacare is not perfect but its a start in the right direction

And im sure those among us recently diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, etc are beyond grateful

I'm not a big fan of the two party system, but some of yall sound ridiculous

Obamacare is terrific and beneficial to all people. I said what has the democratic party or republican party done specifically for African Americans since lyndon johnson? Let me save u a Google search: nothing. We have a black president and a black attorney general and yet we're still dealing with systemic racism in state and federal police forces. Question: does Obama care help when you're being racially profiled by cops?? Or are u just happy when after you've been shot by a cop, u won't have to pay the Healthcare bill after they remove the bullets?? This illustrates that we don't have government on our side. Whites aren't on our side. So why the fuck would we be comfortable killing each other instead of leaning on each other for support and upliftment?? Crying about injustice won't get u shit. I choose to be proactive in bettering my life

 

[Noble Al Lee]

At the end of the day its your life. You can be a plus or you can be a minus in this world. Build or destroy. Regardless of who you are or where ya from or what your experiences are. Generation after generation of existing on an uneven playing field got us here. It was beyond our control. We all understand that and have for some time now. Make a move. Period. Yall can keep blaming the white man (effectively putting your destiny in the hands of and giving even more power to the white man) if u want to. But he doesnt care. So WE have to care.

I mean, we can keep passing the ball back n forth. Afraid to take the shot and claim its bc the white mans long arm is always defending the goal anyway, OR we can say "not today satan", pull up and drain that 3 right in the face of that defender.

Of course the ghetto is by design and the game is rigged. Common knowledge now. But to use that as a reason to be the next lemming to jump off the cliff is sheep-like behavior my bros.

Are we gods or not?

 

[desertrain10]

Not at all. I say civil rights movement because whites gave us a glimmer of their American dream and we fell for the okie doke and thought we were now equals. We've been content with bullshit ever since.

And I don't give a fuck about what others are doing. I'm talking solutions for us as a whole. If not allowing excuses to fuck up your goal of being the greatest person u can be makes me republican, so be it. For the record, I'm independent. Democrats are just as horrible in their record of doing for African Americans as republicans. What was the last great thing done by any party to better the lives of African Americans? ? But, every man has their own life to live. Hopefully the logic you hold works for u bruh. In all sincerity.

For one, a democratic president made it so millions of blks now have health coverage

While the GOP has fought tooth and nail to deny their constituents of this right

Obamacare is not perfect but its a start in the right direction

And im sure those among us recently diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, etc are beyond grateful

I'm not a big fan of the two party system, but some of yall sound ridiculous

Obamacare is terrific and beneficial to all people. I said what has the democratic party or republican party done specifically for African Americans since lyndon johnson? Let me save u a Google search: nothing. We have a black president and a black attorney general and yet we're still dealing with systemic racism in state and federal police forces. Question: does Obama care help when you're being racially profiled by cops?? Or are u just happy when after you've been shot by a cop, u won't have to pay the Healthcare bill after they remove the bullets?? This illustrates that we don't have government on our side. Whites aren't on our side. So why the fuck would we be comfortable killing each other instead of leaning on each other for support and upliftment?? Crying about injustice won't get u shit. I choose to be proactive in bettering my life

Well given our higher uninsured and poverty rates, Obamacare is somewhat of a godsend...well accept for those of us who reside in GOP controlled states like a Louisiana

My point being, one party is actually doing something that stands to benefit a lot of blks...while the other is doing the exact opposite

And just off the top of my head...

A democratic president signed a law compensating thousands of black farmers for decades of discrimnatory lending practices

Obamas justice department pressured Bank of America accused of targeting minority communities into paying millions in settlements

And a democratic presidents attorney general is currently investigating numerous pds accused of misconduct around the country

Your right both parties could do more to combat police brutality... but than again one party won't even aknowledge a problem exists which is half the battle

I'm also tired of the killing, but we have to be realistic about it

The brutal treatment we faced during slavery

through the days of Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and, to a certain extent today has caused many of us to hate our selves, and has fueled a distrust of the world at large. This mentality is but reinforced

with conditions such as low socioeconomic status, social deprivation, inadequate education, high unemployment, and the criminal industrial complex

We gotta address those issues first ...but ppl including those of us who have done well in life gotta be willing to do their part so its not just talk

 

[freshb651]

When I stated that the fuck nigga Geraldo was right in that other thread, people were so up in arms. The truth of the matter is that we're killing each other in high numbers and there isn't any outrage. We want these racist ass cops out of our community, and with good reason. But we're ok with Dante and Tyrone terrorizing our neighborhoods with drugs and violence. Smh We enable thugs and gangs by not checking them or calling the cops when we see shit going on. But then want to cry when people get killed. Ass backwards

did he fuck your wife ??? Long Dick Style nh

 

[manofmorehouse]

[ quote="freshb651;8083750"]

When I stated that the fuck nigga Geraldo was right in that other thread, people were so up in arms. The truth of the matter is that we're killing each other in high numbers and there isn't any outrage. We want these racist ass cops out of our community, and with good reason. But we're ok with Dante and Tyrone terrorizing our neighborhoods with drugs and violence. Smh We enable thugs and gangs by not checking them or calling the cops when we see shit going on. But then want to cry when people get killed. Ass backwards

did he fuck your wife ??? Long Dick Style nh[/quote]

He said "fuck these niggas typing on this bullshit ass forum. I'm here to fuck some bodies wife!" and I was offended lol

 

[The Lonious Monk]

The violence and despair is the result of racial discrimination and failed government policy

Just a few years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay millions of dollars to Bmore and its residents to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by the city claiming the bank unfairly steered minorities who wanted to own homes into subprime mortgages

Before that, there was the crack epidemic of the 90s and the rise of mass incarceration

Than there was the decline of good industrial jobs in the 80s

Before all that, blk families were displaced in Baltimore to build new highways, schools and housing projects. Pieces of their neighborhoods including play grounds bulldozed

And there was redlining, a practice where banks refused to lend at all in blk neighborhoods

I seen it happen in Detroit

Inequality, created over the years by active decisions and government policies that have again and again dismantled the same communities, each time making them socially, economically, and politically weaker

The violence needs to end, but how can we ask young ppl many of whom are from impoverished broken homes to change this "fuck the world" mindset when its more than obvious they are not valued members of society...

That's putting the cart before the horse

With all due respect, this is bullshit to some degree. I say some degree because I don't think you're wrong outright, but at some point, we have to acknowledge we have bad seeds in our community and they need to be handled. There are plenty of poor communities all over America. They haven't all turned into Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Blacks have caught a raw deal in this country, but ya'll have to stop acting like that explains or excuses madness like this. At some point, ya'll are going to have to admit that there is negative shit in our community that we are responsible for and we have to fix before we can ever take on the threats from outside.

When cats in Baltimore were destroying their own hood because they were supposedly angry with the police, ya'll were defending them. Now that the cops have fallen back, are those people showing the world that the cops were wrong to look at them the way they did? No, they are proving them right. All of this is on the people in that community. There comes a time when you have to stop point fingers at others and take a look at yourself.

Bruh

There's a difference between making excuses and acknowledging the environment which breeds this toxic behavior

Unless a person already a bigot, the violence perpetrated by im sure a small number of citizens compared to that of the law abiding citizens of west bmore and beyond, doesn't come close to justifying how the police have terrorized blk bmore residents

The city has a long and storied history of police misconduct and the subsequent pay outs paid with millions in tax payer money

Again as i already stated the violence must stop...but its not as simple as a change in mindset ... and it has to begin with addressing poverty

If we give the youth purpose and opportunities to make money with afterschool initiatives, for example, maybe they wouldn't join a gang or sell drugs to fill those voids

And what about building more rehabilitation clinics for addicts

We lower poverty rates, drug abuse and gang activity that would cut the murder rate in half...maybe even more

Nobody is saying that those things can't be done, but why can there never be a discussion about anything that black people do wrong without trying to act like 100% of the blame lies outside of the community. There are things you can do to improve the situation in Baltimore, but that doesn't mean that things will automatically turn around. There are bad eggs there and they aren't going to suddenly start being good eggs because people are doing nice things in the community. Hell, if those nice things impeded on their interests, they would likely resist the changes. That has happened too.

Like I said before, I'm not saying you were wrong with your first post. And you're not wrong with this post. It's just annoying how every time there is a discussion about some bad behavior within the community, someone always runs in trying to act like blacks are incapable of being accountable for their own actions. Regardless of what white people do to us, we make our own choices. Blacks have always been shitted on in this country, but we weren't always killing each other by the dozen every weekend.

 

[Idiopathic Joker]

This nigga and his long ass articles bruh

 

[StillFaggyAF]

i don't like the title of this thread. shootings have increased across the US's cities with the weather getting hotter

 

[desertrain10]

The violence and despair is the result of racial discrimination and failed government policy

Just a few years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay millions of dollars to Bmore and its residents to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by the city claiming the bank unfairly steered minorities who wanted to own homes into subprime mortgages

Before that, there was the crack epidemic of the 90s and the rise of mass incarceration

Than there was the decline of good industrial jobs in the 80s

Before all that, blk families were displaced in Baltimore to build new highways, schools and housing projects. Pieces of their neighborhoods including play grounds bulldozed

And there was redlining, a practice where banks refused to lend at all in blk neighborhoods

I seen it happen in Detroit

Inequality, created over the years by active decisions and government policies that have again and again dismantled the same communities, each time making them socially, economically, and politically weaker

The violence needs to end, but how can we ask young ppl many of whom are from impoverished broken homes to change this "fuck the world" mindset when its more than obvious they are not valued members of society...

That's putting the cart before the horse

With all due respect, this is bullshit to some degree. I say some degree because I don't think you're wrong outright, but at some point, we have to acknowledge we have bad seeds in our community and they need to be handled. There are plenty of poor communities all over America. They haven't all turned into Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Blacks have caught a raw deal in this country, but ya'll have to stop acting like that explains or excuses madness like this. At some point, ya'll are going to have to admit that there is negative shit in our community that we are responsible for and we have to fix before we can ever take on the threats from outside.

When cats in Baltimore were destroying their own hood because they were supposedly angry with the police, ya'll were defending them. Now that the cops have fallen back, are those people showing the world that the cops were wrong to look at them the way they did? No, they are proving them right. All of this is on the people in that community. There comes a time when you have to stop point fingers at others and take a look at yourself.

Bruh

There's a difference between making excuses and acknowledging the environment which breeds this toxic behavior

Unless a person already a bigot, the violence perpetrated by im sure a small number of citizens compared to that of the law abiding citizens of west bmore and beyond, doesn't come close to justifying how the police have terrorized blk bmore residents

The city has a long and storied history of police misconduct and the subsequent pay outs paid with millions in tax payer money

Again as i already stated the violence must stop...but its not as simple as a change in mindset ... and it has to begin with addressing poverty

If we give the youth purpose and opportunities to make money with afterschool initiatives, for example, maybe they wouldn't join a gang or sell drugs to fill those voids

And what about building more rehabilitation clinics for addicts

We lower poverty rates, drug abuse and gang activity that would cut the murder rate in half...maybe even more

Nobody is saying that those things can't be done, but why can there never be a discussion about anything that black people do wrong without trying to act like 100% of the blame lies outside of the community. There are things you can do to improve the situation in Baltimore, but that doesn't mean that things will automatically turn around. There are bad eggs there and they aren't going to suddenly start being good eggs because people are doing nice things in the community. Hell, if those nice things impeded on their interests, they would likely resist the changes. That has happened too.

Like I said before, I'm not saying you were wrong with your first post. And you're not wrong with this post. It's just annoying how every time there is a discussion about some bad behavior within the community, someone always runs in trying to act like blacks are incapable of being accountable for their own actions. Regardless of what white people do to us, we make our own choices. Blacks have always been shitted on in this country, but we weren't always killing each other by the dozen every weekend.

With the exception of slavery, never have blacks

lived in such tight quarters either... once upon a time most blks lived in rural areas

You're gonna see more violent crime in cities and urban areas for obvious reasons

Couple that with gangs fighting for drug territory, poverty, high unemployment rate and you have a powder keg

Its no coincidence with the crack epidemic we seen a spike violence in major cities across america

And respectability politics in all its forms is nothing new..

From the W.E.B. Du Bois and Bill Cosbys of the world, the message of self accountability, having a high moral character, and self reliance has always had a big following

Its as popular today as it ever was

Take for instance how most mainstream media, politicians, public figures framed the riots as the result of misbehaving children, and a general lack of discipline stemming from disorderly families... the majority of posters here shared the same sentiments

Little to no mention of reports from teachers and other community members who say the police were the main instigators

There is a conversation to be had about our role in the destruction of our neighborhoods, but my problem with what ur saying and respectability politics as a whole is too often "black culture" is used as a scape goat ...

That and i don't believe most drug dealers, gang members, etc were born bad ppl...which has essentially been my argument

There is a multitude of reasons why they behave the way that they do

Flowers generally don't bloom for the concrete...same concept

 

[rapmusic]

It's funny how during the protests/riots all these people were so focused on getting the media to show positive stuff on the news. You know what would've been ether to the media? Showing that the community is healing after such a major blow. It was heading in the right direction then these shootings happened. This is why the police feel like they need all that military bullshit. This is so sad man.

 

[damobb2deep]

It's funny how during the protests/riots all these people were so focused on getting the media to show positive stuff on the news. You know what would've been ether to the media? Showing that the community is healing after such a major blow. It was heading in the right direction then these shootings happened. This is why the police feel like they need all that military bullshit. This is so sad man.

violence happens bruh... you don't need all that shyt... the only reason this shyt is even being talked about is because it is negative... are they still talking about Furgeson heavy? no because the violence has gone down and the community has been doing the right thing... the media is solely into ratings and negative shyt brings higher ratings.. it's just niggas don't realize they spin these stories so people can react... now I'm not condoning the violence at all but come on now.. the same niggas in here talking savage about Baltimore will say "fuck the police" in another thread. . niggas love to point fingers and make issues like this seem so simple to solve... and none of them are law enforcement... or Sociology majors...

 

[2stepz_ahead]

The violence and despair is the result of racial discrimination and failed government policy

Just a few years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay millions of dollars to Bmore and its residents to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by the city claiming the bank unfairly steered minorities who wanted to own homes into subprime mortgages

Before that, there was the crack epidemic of the 90s and the rise of mass incarceration

Than there was the decline of good industrial jobs in the 80s

Before all that, blk families were displaced in Baltimore to build new highways, schools and housing projects. Pieces of their neighborhoods including play grounds bulldozed

And there was redlining, a practice where banks refused to lend at all in blk neighborhoods

I seen it happen in Detroit

Inequality, created over the years by active decisions and government policies that have again and again dismantled the same communities, each time making them socially, economically, and politically weaker

The violence needs to end, but how can we ask young ppl many of whom are from impoverished broken homes to change this "fuck the world" mindset when its more than obvious they are not valued members of society...

That's putting the cart before the horse

With all due respect, this is bullshit to some degree. I say some degree because I don't think you're wrong outright, but at some point, we have to acknowledge we have bad seeds in our community and they need to be handled. There are plenty of poor communities all over America. They haven't all turned into Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Blacks have caught a raw deal in this country, but ya'll have to stop acting like that explains or excuses madness like this. At some point, ya'll are going to have to admit that there is negative shit in our community that we are responsible for and we have to fix before we can ever take on the threats from outside.

When cats in Baltimore were destroying their own hood because they were supposedly angry with the police, ya'll were defending them. Now that the cops have fallen back, are those people showing the world that the cops were wrong to look at them the way they did? No, they are proving them right. All of this is on the people in that community. There comes a time when you have to stop point fingers at others and take a look at yourself.

Bruh

There's a difference between making excuses and acknowledging the environment which breeds this toxic behavior

Unless a person already a bigot, the violence perpetrated by im sure a small number of citizens compared to that of the law abiding citizens of west bmore and beyond, doesn't come close to justifying how the police have terrorized blk bmore residents

The city has a long and storied history of police misconduct and the subsequent pay outs paid with millions in tax payer money

Again as i already stated the violence must stop...but its not as simple as a change in mindset ... and it has to begin with addressing poverty

If we give the youth purpose and opportunities to make money with afterschool initiatives, for example, maybe they wouldn't join a gang or sell drugs to fill those voids

And what about building more rehabilitation clinics for addicts

We lower poverty rates, drug abuse and gang activity that would cut the murder rate in half...maybe even more

Nobody is saying that those things can't be done, but why can there never be a discussion about anything that black people do wrong without trying to act like 100% of the blame lies outside of the community. There are things you can do to improve the situation in Baltimore, but that doesn't mean that things will automatically turn around. There are bad eggs there and they aren't going to suddenly start being good eggs because people are doing nice things in the community. Hell, if those nice things impeded on their interests, they would likely resist the changes. That has happened too.

Like I said before, I'm not saying you were wrong with your first post. And you're not wrong with this post. It's just annoying how every time there is a discussion about some bad behavior within the community, someone always runs in trying to act like blacks are incapable of being accountable for their own actions. Regardless of what white people do to us, we make our own choices. Blacks have always been shitted on in this country, but we weren't always killing each other by the dozen every weekend.

With the exception of slavery, never have blacks

lived in such tight quarters either... once upon a time most blks lived in rural areas

You're gonna see more violent crime in cities and urban areas for obvious reasons

Couple that with gangs fighting for drug territory, poverty, high unemployment rate and you have a powder keg

Its no coincidence with the crack epidemic we seen a spike violence in major cities across america

And respectability politics in all its forms is nothing new..

From the W.E.B. Du Bois and Bill Cosbys of the world, the message of self accountability, having a high moral character, and self reliance has always had a big following

Its as popular today as it ever was

Take for instance how most mainstream media, politicians, public figures framed the riots as the result of misbehaving children, and a general lack of discipline stemming from disorderly families... the majority of posters here shared the same sentiments

Little to no mention of reports from teachers and other community members who say the police were the main instigators

There is a conversation to be had about our role in the destruction of our neighborhoods, but my problem with what ur saying and respectability politics as a whole is too often "black culture" is used as a scape goat ...

That and i don't believe most drug dealers, gang members, etc were born bad ppl...which has essentially been my argument

There is a multitude of reasons why they behave the way that they do

Flowers generally don't bloom for the concrete...same concept

Flowers generally don't bloom for the concrete

very interesting analogy

let me add to that...

flowers can but dont...

it only takes a few to grow and the roots begin to fukk up the foundation of the concrete and crack the concrete...

then grass begins to grow because my light and rain comes in to the soil underneath

grass and flowers eventually create a tree...

the trees roots, begin to destroy the concrete and spread.....creating more cracks and more tress and grass and flowers.

what can be done at that point?

you either cut the roots to the tree or remove the tree...but the concrete then needs to be reset....

i am sure i lost alot of you with what i just said...but its the truth and life

 

[zzombie]

Not at all. I say civil rights movement because whites gave us a glimmer of their American dream and we fell for the okie doke and thought we were now equals. We've been content with bullshit ever since.

And I don't give a fuck about what others are doing. I'm talking solutions for us as a whole. If not allowing excuses to fuck up your goal of being the greatest person u can be makes me republican, so be it. For the record, I'm independent. Democrats are just as horrible in their record of doing for African Americans as republicans. What was the last great thing done by any party to better the lives of African Americans? ? But, every man has their own life to live. Hopefully the logic you hold works for u bruh. In all sincerity.

I don't give a flying fuck about a democrat nor republican…what i honestly don't understand is this tho and this isn't necessarily directed at just you…why does bill o'reilly , rush limbaugh, and sean hannity get so much flack on here when all they basically say is the same shit that's being said in this thread?

Because blacks have been brainwashed into believing liberal nonsense.

 

[2stepz_ahead]

Conversations like this reminds me of this chick i know. Chick is down bad, got several kids and made alot of bad decisions. Knowing how i know her, i cant entirely say its her fault.

She had a bad upbringing with a mother who physcially and mentally anused her.She doesnt know who she is, and has accepted what our culture says a women with her backround is supposed to be.

Now, she could realize that what she is, is what she chooses to be. She could stop seeing kids as a burden and stop being resentful of them. But shes caught up in this mindframe that its all her mothers fault.

She constantly wants to hurt her mother, fight her mother. I asked here what does she want from her mother. She says she wants her mother to say sorry and truely mean it. She had tears in her eyes as she said it.

I asked her, if she does. How will that change what her life is right now. She got upset and told me to get out her house.

thats her mother tho....the person she is supposed to trust to protect her and guide her...her mother saying sorry would change her life and i am sure she would be able to forgive everything.

you cant compare this to how our country treats us....they never wanted us here and only brought us here to help their bottom line of building a country free. they are not our protectors...we are our own protectors.too many of us want to trust the person who keeps hurting us

 

[2stepz_ahead]

Conversations like this reminds me of this chick i know. Chick is down bad, got several kids and made alot of bad decisions. Knowing how i know her, i cant entirely say its her fault.

She had a bad upbringing with a mother who physcially and mentally anused her.She doesnt know who she is, and has accepted what our culture says a women with her backround is supposed to be.

Now, she could realize that what she is, is what she chooses to be. She could stop seeing kids as a burden and stop being resentful of them. But shes caught up in this mindframe that its all her mothers fault.

She constantly wants to hurt her mother, fight her mother. I asked here what does she want from her mother. She says she wants her mother to say sorry and truely mean it. She had tears in her eyes as she said it.

I asked her, if she does. How will that change what her life is right now. She got upset and told me to get out her house.

thats her mother tho....the person she is supposed to trust to protect her and guide her...her mother saying sorry would change her life and i am sure she would be able to forgive everything.

you cant compare this to how our country treats us....they never wanted us here and only brought us here to help their bottom line of building a country free. they are not our protectors...we are our own protectors.too many of us want to trust the person who keeps hurting us

Pose to's aint reality bruh..life is what its pose to be. U play with the hand ur dealt. You of all people know this

i agree....but it took alot for me to get to the point of dealing with what i was dealt.

but in her case...it takes a strong person to rise above wanting to be loved by a parent....and not getting it.

 

[The Lonious Monk]

The violence and despair is the result of racial discrimination and failed government policy

Just a few years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay millions of dollars to Bmore and its residents to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by the city claiming the bank unfairly steered minorities who wanted to own homes into subprime mortgages

Before that, there was the crack epidemic of the 90s and the rise of mass incarceration

Than there was the decline of good industrial jobs in the 80s

Before all that, blk families were displaced in Baltimore to build new highways, schools and housing projects. Pieces of their neighborhoods including play grounds bulldozed

And there was redlining, a practice where banks refused to lend at all in blk neighborhoods

I seen it happen in Detroit

Inequality, created over the years by active decisions and government policies that have again and again dismantled the same communities, each time making them socially, economically, and politically weaker

The violence needs to end, but how can we ask young ppl many of whom are from impoverished broken homes to change this "fuck the world" mindset when its more than obvious they are not valued members of society...

That's putting the cart before the horse

With all due respect, this is bullshit to some degree. I say some degree because I don't think you're wrong outright, but at some point, we have to acknowledge we have bad seeds in our community and they need to be handled. There are plenty of poor communities all over America. They haven't all turned into Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Blacks have caught a raw deal in this country, but ya'll have to stop acting like that explains or excuses madness like this. At some point, ya'll are going to have to admit that there is negative shit in our community that we are responsible for and we have to fix before we can ever take on the threats from outside.

When cats in Baltimore were destroying their own hood because they were supposedly angry with the police, ya'll were defending them. Now that the cops have fallen back, are those people showing the world that the cops were wrong to look at them the way they did? No, they are proving them right. All of this is on the people in that community. There comes a time when you have to stop point fingers at others and take a look at yourself.

Bruh

There's a difference between making excuses and acknowledging the environment which breeds this toxic behavior

Unless a person already a bigot, the violence perpetrated by im sure a small number of citizens compared to that of the law abiding citizens of west bmore and beyond, doesn't come close to justifying how the police have terrorized blk bmore residents

The city has a long and storied history of police misconduct and the subsequent pay outs paid with millions in tax payer money

Again as i already stated the violence must stop...but its not as simple as a change in mindset ... and it has to begin with addressing poverty

If we give the youth purpose and opportunities to make money with afterschool initiatives, for example, maybe they wouldn't join a gang or sell drugs to fill those voids

And what about building more rehabilitation clinics for addicts

We lower poverty rates, drug abuse and gang activity that would cut the murder rate in half...maybe even more

Nobody is saying that those things can't be done, but why can there never be a discussion about anything that black people do wrong without trying to act like 100% of the blame lies outside of the community. There are things you can do to improve the situation in Baltimore, but that doesn't mean that things will automatically turn around. There are bad eggs there and they aren't going to suddenly start being good eggs because people are doing nice things in the community. Hell, if those nice things impeded on their interests, they would likely resist the changes. That has happened too.

Like I said before, I'm not saying you were wrong with your first post. And you're not wrong with this post. It's just annoying how every time there is a discussion about some bad behavior within the community, someone always runs in trying to act like blacks are incapable of being accountable for their own actions. Regardless of what white people do to us, we make our own choices. Blacks have always been shitted on in this country, but we weren't always killing each other by the dozen every weekend.

With the exception of slavery, never have blacks

lived in such tight quarters either... once upon a time most blks lived in rural areas

You're gonna see more violent crime in cities and urban areas for obvious reasons

Couple that with gangs fighting for drug territory, poverty, high unemployment rate and you have a powder keg

Its no coincidence with the crack epidemic we seen a spike violence in major cities across america

And respectability politics in all its forms is nothing new..

From the W.E.B. Du Bois and Bill Cosbys of the world, the message of self accountability, having a high moral character, and self reliance has always had a big following

Its as popular today as it ever was

Take for instance how most mainstream media, politicians, public figures framed the riots as the result of misbehaving children, and a general lack of discipline stemming from disorderly families... the majority of posters here shared the same sentiments

Little to no mention of reports from teachers and other community members who say the police were the main instigators

There is a conversation to be had about our role in the destruction of our neighborhoods, but my problem with what ur saying and respectability politics as a whole is too often "black culture" is used as a scape goat ...

That and i don't believe most drug dealers, gang members, etc were born bad ppl...which has essentially been my argument

There is a multitude of reasons why they behave the way that they do

Flowers generally don't bloom for the concrete...same concept

What are you talking about? Black people didn't just migrate to the big cities. That happened decades ago. If anything it's being reversed to some degree now because of gentrification. Black people were packed into cities like Detroit and Baltimore in the 60s and 70s too and we weren't killing each like what is done now.

And who said anything about those people being born bad. If they were born bad then my argument wouldn't make any sense. My point is that we have a choice and we are accountable, and despite the fact that we've been and continue to be mistreated, black people are still making bad choices. Following protests that got your city's plight national attention and got the police to fall back with a spike in violent crime is a hell of a bad choice. Why can't we just say that? Why do you and others always have to ignore that to try and look for someone else to blame. You people treat the black race like a bunch of children that are incapable of making responsible decisions.

 

[MasterJayN100]

 

[damobb2deep]

smh know too many mom's that have gone thru that...

 

[desertrain10]

@Lonious Monk

The great migration, when millions blk americans relocated from the rural south to the cities of the north, midwest and west began in the early 1900s ...during a time when collecting crime data was in its infancy, there was no tv, no 24 hr news outlets, and no internet ...so i dunno how you could say with any certainty this period of time was relatively peaceful compared to today

I think its safe to assume though that city life ushered in a new set of problems...violent crime being one

In the 70, 80s during the times when herion and crack was funneled into blk neighborhoods that's when a spike in violence was first reported ...which can be substantiated

The 90s, late 80s, major job lost in the manufacturing industry further exasperated things

Today, however, violent crime is at a 40, 50 yr low in most major cities ...including bmore ... so to suggest that this generation of blks are more violent, irresponsible than previous generations is false and misleading at best ...especially doing so without context

Its unfortunate what we are seeing in bmore now that fred grays death has cast the national spot light on the city, but its not surprising

Wish things were different but its naive to expect his death to unite ppl, gangs with longstanding disputes over things like turf and money...and at the end of the day the ppl there are still living in the same shitty conditions they were before he was killed

Any race of ppl would react the same given the conditions we have had to live under not only in bmore but america the last 300 or whatever yrs ...remember slavery ended alil more than 150 yrs ago, and jim crow not ever 60 yrs ago, nothing but more time can completely reverse the damage of these institutions have inflicted upon our psyche and overall being

I get ppl need to make better choices... and its true you never said that ppl are born one way or another...but at the same time let's not act like our choices aren't driven by environment, biology, societal and non-conscious forces

For instance, its unlikely that I a heterosexual woman will marry a woman, because that could not be further away from my environmental, biological, and non-conscious inclinations. But you know what? I COULD try. Still doesn't mean its possible. It would take not only take effort on my part, but its also determined by my residency. And to a lesser degree its influenced by my culture and upbringing

Than to a large extent the choices we make are created by those with power, institutions... sure some of us wouldn't pay our taxes if we didn't have to worry about being penalized, wouldn't u agree? Lol

My point being, issues we face are complex and require more than just black ppl looking on the mirror...we have to present ppl with better choices, and invest more resources into making sure they make the best choice

But whatever continue on... Scolding poo' blk folk can never get tired, old...Not as if we don't get enough of it from politicians, the media, each other the last 100 years

And im sure it makes u feel so superior...because you never made a bad choice or a mistake...luck or fate had nothing to do with how ur life turned out lol