Once news of the Baltimore riots and the less-covered peaceful protests took center stage, the conversation focused on the racism and police brutality that prompted these events. And while those things are without question long-standing problems in this city – and as other events have shown, this nation – there is another problem which many are reluctant to talk about. It has just as much to do with the riots, not the non-violent protests. With the destruction of property and neighborhoods, not the calls for peace and justice. And that is the intra-racism and self-loathing that causes some Black people to psychologically – and at times physically – brutalize one another and terrorize predominantly Black neighborhoods and the rest of the city. While most discussions of intra-racism or intra-racial discrimination focus on, and loosely define it as, “colorism,” it is much more than that.
Freddie Gray and police brutality
Regarding Freddie Gray, his death was a tragedy, if only because he was so young and may have had the chance at some point to turn his life around for the better. Many have asked, “why did he run?” In looking at his police record and seeing the cases pending at the time, one might guess he ran because he personally knew the officers and he knew what they intended to do. Or maybe he didn't know the officers, and only suspected that because of his record they were going to arrest him. It's unclear at this point, and only the current investigations and those involved can give us any real answers. Whatever the reason, he didn't deserve to be beaten and killed, and the persons responsible need to face justice.
Intra-racism's impact
Unfortunately, his life and death – and the lives and deaths of too many others – is a sad example of how two irrational evils of society work in tandem to destroy people, countries, and communities from the inside out. And for the riots, there's evidence to suggest that the violence in the various majority African-American, economically disenfranchised neighborhoods was caused in part by Black people from other neighborhoods in Baltimore, and possibly from outside of Maryland as well.
While it's likely some who also live in those very neighborhoods took part in the damage, there were many who simply did not care about the destruction they caused because they did not live there. It didn't matter to them that they were destroying neighborhoods similar to their own. And now the people who do live there are the ones who have to deal with the aftermath, long after the cameras and clean-up crews are gone.
We have many conversations about racism and how to abate it. And of course we talk about the very obvious – the need for economic reform, jobs, the poverty level, educational reform. All of which are, in part, ills of structural racism. Those things need to be talked about AND solutions need to be implemented. But what about intra-racism and the outward and inner hostility it creates; how it also contributes to harmful lifestyles, violence, and limited choices?
How it works
As a Black woman living and working in Baltimore City – but not a native of Maryland or financially well-off on my own – I have often seen and experienced first-hand this hostility. It is like a flu endlessly spreading from one person to another. The culture of low self-respect and lack of respect for others is a very real issue in this city, as well as others like it.
Many times, presumably in order to satiate the anguish they feel in their own lives, a number of Black people in Baltimore will deliberately try to provoke confrontations with each other, and with non-Blacks. Politeness is met with disdain and accusations of not being “real” or trying to “act White”. Hatred is spewed onto others who are different – if a person speaks differently, they are considered to be “acting white”; if a person is of lighter skin-tone, they may be met with disdain and intra-racial slurs; if a person is of darker skin-tone they may be met with the same; if a person is interested in education in general or education that is deemed “not Black” then they are labeled as “not Black enough.”
There's been a pervasive attitude that a person can't be Black and do, believe, or act in certain (often non-detrimental) ways. If they (we) do, then it is met by clandestine and/or open aggression by other Black people. This is in addition to the aggression some Black people display to those they see as being similar, to themselves. While there are countless Blacks within the city and elsewhere who do strive to live in harmony with all – as partially evidenced by the many peaceful protestors who called for non-violence – those who do not care have spun the situation out of control.
There are those who, due to jealousy, fear, and self-loathing, attempt to bring down any one and any thing good in this city, or different from them. They attempt to – and often succeed in – spreading their anger and hatred until many feel that they have no choice but to respond in kind. And this attitude spreads out of the Black communities and into the non-Black communities (though it is still true that negative attitudes and behaviors exist in all cultures, regardless of race or ethnicity).
Intra-racism is intertwined with racism and prejudice
Many people will say that the intra-racism, lack of respect, and self-loathing stems from the centuries of systematic oppression of Blacks – from African nations being conquered and oppressed and histories erased or overwritten, to centuries of slavery, decades of segregation, and covert racism. To a system that attempts to keep a majority of Black people “on the bottom” and at each others' throats because it is erroneously believed that somebody has to be in order for the system to “work” well for everybody else. All of these points are valid without a doubt and contribute to the issue. Some White people and some of other races of people do use violence, psychological terrorism, and racism (both covert and overt) to oppress those clearly of African descent.
But the problem is still larger than that. While many Black people have let the despair of being treated as “less than” turn them against self and one another, thus continuing and causing a cycle of aggression, many struggle to and succeed at rising above it. The question is, regardless of where it originated, how can the cycle be disrupted overall, how can it be changed?
Racism will, unfortunately, probably continue to exist for a while to come, possibly until the next big evolutionary change in humanity or longer. And if greater change for the better in Black communities is hinging even in part on the end of racism, it's going to be a long wait. This in no way means that individual and structural racism shouldn't be tackled and challenged. But the same intense focus needs to be turned to other solutions as well. Among them is the fact that Black people in Baltimore and elsewhere need to stop seeing the successes of other Blacks, or the differences of other Blacks, as a threat. To stop viewing such differences and successes with jealousy and hatred and attempting to spoil, crush or steal for themselves those very things. Otherwise known as the “crabs in a barrel” mentality, or just acting like crabs in general since the crustaceans also push, pull and “hold back” one another in their natural habitats. Self-training and communal efforts are needed to change thought-patterns which lead to negative behaviors. There are groups and individual efforts already being made along those lines, and more still can be done.
What can be done
Years ago, while I was an undergrad at USC, I had a sociology class in which we discussed and read about racism and its potential cures. In one of the books we read, it was stated that studies found that no amount of facts or statistics would ever change a racist view. It was also stated that experiments showed the only way to change racism was through community building – that when people were required to work on themselves and work together on beneficial projects, as long as all put in the work, racist views were changed.
While a form of cross-cultural/racial “community building” may be necessary to abate racism (both structural and individual), one thing is certain – Black people must continue, more so, to build up themselves and each other by respecting and accepting ourselves and differences, even as we work and live and interact with the rest of our fellow beings. And not the pseudo “community building” that is so often seen (and so often doesn't last), but genuine day-to-day respect and helping one another. And if the latter is not always possible, then at the very least tolerance and non-interference.
It's not an easy process, as everybody has flaws and no person moves through life without acquiring baggage. I'm by no means a perfect being either, and as much as I've tried to see and celebrate the good in Baltimore, there have been occasions when, due to so many negative experiences in my time here, I have viewed the city as little more than a hostile plague of an environment. But, I also well know, that that kind of thinking, and the hateful behavior it is a response to, does little to help make things better. However, there are many, beneficial ways of thinking and being that do help. Various forms of meditation have long been helpful for religious persons, spiritualists and atheists alike. Prayer, regardless of religious affiliation, can also be helpful. Even basic etiquette. Dedicated, long-term self-improvement along with examination and eradication of wrong thinking and behavior, combined with concrete real world actions. By no means comprehensive, but these can contribute to the larger process.
Aside from that, there are already religious and non-religious charities, government groups, artists and other people of all races working together in Baltimore to make something good from the destruction of the riots. Many are also doing other work in order to show that while there is a great deal of bad, there are still decent people and beautiful things in Baltimore. Some people are working on individual levels to change their perceptions and attitudes, while others are working within various communities to make change. No true effort is too small. And our city is just one example. While there is so much that needs to be done – more than can be summed up in one or even a hundred articles or books – and self-improvement is never easy or simple, it's a necessary step in improving the whole.