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Not My World Reflections on Baltimore

I always enjoyed 8th grade biology. Biology was third period, just before lunch, and our
class was fun. David sat near me, both of us having C last names, and I considered him a
friend. We had worked on projects together, both loved the same movies and both loved to
entertain everyone around us. David was an African American star basketball player, I am a
white Native American tenor in choir, but I thought we had more in common than not. This
particular day our class ended early and students sat around and talked until the lunch bell. David
was telling us about some problems he had been having with players from a rival team and how
they were trying to intimidate him. We were all talking trash with him and making fun of their
team, laughing over their threats. Then, almost to himself, he said, I aint worried about that!
exposing the handle of the snub-nosed .38 tucked into the waistband of his jeans, that was when I
knew Davids world was not my own.
I was baffled by the events in Baltimore, April 2015. The tragic death of Freddie Gray
was saddening, but the subsequent rioting seemed the actions of a petulant child, trashing their
own room in a tantrum and expecting mom and dad to clean it up. But, like I realized with
David, that world is not my own. I dont understand the frustration of a lifetime of animosity. In
his book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Author Wes Moore states, For almost
as long as black folks have been in this country, theyve had a complicated relationship with law
enforcement and vice versa. (81) Here Moore points out the long history present in this
conflict, but he also acknowledges how this relationship further dissolved during the eighties.
The loss of blue-collar jobs and the rapid rise of violence and crime brought by drugs left a
legacy of fear for both police and the people they are supposed to serve. The rift this fear caused
has continued to grow for decades. The events of April 12, 2015 illustrate this fear and the anger

it produces, both in the actions of the officers the reaction of rioters and the further response by
police following protests. It would be simple to ignore Grays criminal history, the drug problems
in Sandtown-Winchester and paint the police as murdering racist tyrants. It would also be simple
to ignore the questionable actions and motives of the six officers and criticize the criminals as
suffering from entitlement issues. But these are not simple relationships and both of these
choices would be nave and wrong.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, A riot is the language of the unheard. The protesters
that congregated on those Baltimore streets in April of 2015 were unheard, and many of them felt
they had been unheard for quite some time. The community knew something was wrong; they
were afraid and unprotected. Fear leads to frustration, frustration to anger and anger becomes
violent. However, when the unheard become violent, the possibility of conversation ends. No one
is listening. Looking in from the outside I can see what Dr. King is trying to say, the unheard,
unprotected citizens fearful of the seemingly arbitrary actions of police. I can also see the fear of
law-enforcement, outmatched by the armed, violent criminals on their streets who feel
confronted by the community they are trying to protect. But I am outside looking in. This is not
the world I know.
I never told anyone what David had shared with me that day. I didnt know what to say.
David was a good student, a friend; this didnt seem like something he would do. I didnt
understand the culture he lived in, the struggles he had as a young African American male, even
in the quiet town of Sand Springs. To me, he was just like the rest of us. The anger and violence
were problems of big cities like Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago not my town, but Davids
world was not my own.

"Martin Luther King, Jr.." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2016. 1 May 2016.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth115061.html

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