Baltimore doesn't need the 'black crisis clergy' and their same old message

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/30/baltimore-doesnt-need-the-black-crisis-clergy

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The elite black crisis clergy are back again. They arrived in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray with the same ol’ custom suits and rhetoric that they have used on their macabre death tours since I was a kid.

For years, the same self-appointed black leaders have visited every city mourning yet another black man killed by the police. They swoop in, give a speech, maybe march a mile or two, take some viral social media pictures and then move on to the next national black tragedy.

Now its Baltimore’s turn to witness this circus. Many of the top black leaders addressed residents at Freddie Gray’s funeral over at New Shiloh Baptist Church in West Baltimore. Some in Baltimore were inspired by their Christian rants and positive agendas. Listeners of a popular Baltimore radio show where I often contribute called in to say how grateful they were for the clergy’s attendance and the peaceful marches they have been participating in.

The old Christian rhetoric seems to work great for the 20 and over crowd but it’s evident that the young people of Baltimore don’t care – they feel that these methods are dated and do not work. In the past, short appearances in times of trouble were good enough for black residents who felt neglected. Not anymore.

Frustrated at how the Gray case is being handled, groups of high school students along with some early twenty-somethings, clicked up with masks and bandanas, rampaged through the streets of Baltimore on the night of Gray’s funeral. They trashed stores, flipped cops and jacked reporters.

During the 24-hour news coverage, the young people involved in this uprising were labelled thugs. Thugs? When white hockey fans win or lose the Stanley cup and react in the same way, they are called vandals. But African Americans dealing with the murder of an innocent community member are instantly called thugs and criminals for similar behavior.

Those kids don’t deserve that label. They are hurt by the same lopsided system that oppressed their parents and grandparents. They are bored by speeches and uninspired by peaceful protests that lead to nothing but non-indictments.

They feel like Zimmerman, Wilson and those cops who held Eric Garner in a choke hold got away with what many of the kids felt was murder. If peace won’t work, then to them violence is the only option. The police has used violence against the black community for years. These kids are just young people returning the pain that has been given to them in the past and our politicians aren’t helping.

Stephanie Rawlings Blake and President Obama were quick to call the young people who are rising up thugs and criminals. Yet it took these Baltimore youth to make us all understand that the broken methods of the past don’t work.

I’m not an advocate for violence but I do commend the young people of Baltimore for their courageous quest for racial equality. They risked their lives in the name of justice for Freddie Gray and are showing us that we have to fight for the change we’d all like to see.

Our politicians and the black clergy who identify as our leaders could stand to learn a lot from them.