The people of Baltimore have been much on my mind lately—and on many of our minds, I suspect. Reader Mary has shared her thoughts on watching coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality cases while watching the Baltimore protests.
In “Or does it explode,” at her blog Bread and Roses, she suggests a number of links to give information and perspectives about what’s been happening in Baltimore—but more importantly, she reminds us of the intersectionality of social justice struggles, and offers her take as a one-time resident of the city:
My Baltimore was filled with love and threat and suffering. Â Filled with the friendly and loving people, who could not fix the crumbling infastructure, the massive disinvestment. Â Baltimore is a colonial outpost where the wealthy extract what they can—the University studies the local population, where strong young men go to prison to work for free. Â Baltimore is the most civic-minded place I have ever lived, where local people know that if you want something done you have to get your neighbors together and do it, because the city will never show up to help. Â My Baltimore was one of compassion fatigue, where every educator, health care worker, law enforcement officer created a hard shell to survive in the face of so much suffering—and so did I.
I hope you’ll go read her whole post, along with her earlier piece, “Raising White Kids While White,” written in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin. Wise words.