Margaret Felice

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Media
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Performances
    • Upcoming Speaking Events
  • Speaking
  • Publications
  • Performance
    • Biography
    • Repertoire
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

On “not understanding” Baltimore

April 28, 2015 · Filed Under: Culture · Tagged With: Baltimore, news

I don’t usually like to comment on things unless I have time to write an exhaustive, thorough, well thought out treatment of the topic (which is a terrible quality in a blogger, but not a bad one in a thoughtful person, I suppose). But I can’t help but comment on one of the responses I keep hearing to events in Baltimore (and to Ferguson, and on and on).

When chaos erupts as it has in Baltimore, I often hear people say they “don’t understand” why people would act that way. Of course you don’t understand. If you’ve never been made to feel unworthy because the state can’t even bother to give you a good education, you don’t understand. If you never been picked up for a minor offense, pressured into pleading guilty, and then been unable to find a job because of your record, you don’t understand. If you didn’t grow up hungry, you don’t understand. People in suburbs don’t not-riot because they are superior but because they are comfortable.

If you don’t understand, instead of being smug, you should be grateful.

Police in riot gear at Ferguson

Image: Police in riot gear in Ferguson By Jamelle Bouie [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Like what you read? Subscribe, or catch me on Facebook or Twitter.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Related

3 Comments

Comments

  1. Gen Coleman says

    April 28, 2015 at 2:02 pm

    I have been all those things and I still don’t understand the reaction we’re seeing in Baltimore.

    Reply
  2. KarenJ says

    April 28, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    what a smug, self righteous liberal reaction.

    Reply
  3. Karen Seay says

    April 29, 2015 at 9:05 am

    Meg,

    Amen, amen and amen. For more words on the same subject see the Twitter comment posted by Baltimore Orioles owner, John Angelos. Perhaps the most thoughtful statement out there about what happened. I hope such voices continue speaking.

    Karen Seay

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More about Margaret

Subscribe to Blog

Sign up to get my posts delivered to your inbox.
How often would you like to receive updates?

Recent Posts

  • What I read, 2022
  • Finding Lady’s Wells
  • A place for grief to go
  • Post-op
  • Eating a tomato sandwich in October

Topics I’ve Written About:

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
  • Home
  • About
  • Biography
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Media
  • Performance
  • Publications
  • Repertoire
  • Speaking

Search

© 2023 Margaret Felice · Headshots by Earl Christie · Website by Little Leaf Design