Frustrated Baltimore residents have every right to uprise.
The city’s unemployment rate is at 8.4 percent and the majority of its residents are minorities who resent a police department that is known to harass black citizens.
When you couple years of frustration and Freddie Gray’s wrongful death at the hands of racist police, you get a city’s justifiable response to oppression.
When an immense amount of pressure and provocation are put upon a group, no one can be surprised at the response.
People’s privilege shows when they accuse Baltimore residents of being looters, rioters and unruly.
The truth of the matter is, some of us will never know certain oppression and we have no right to silence people who are tired of having a boot on their neck.
We have no right to portray indignation over a city up in flames via Martin Luther King quotes on Facebook because we don’t understand its pain and exasperation.
Does the media have a hand in shaping our views on the matter? Yes.
The media keeps us informed about recent happenings in Baltimore and around the world, but what happens when the coverage isn’t balanced?
In Baltimore’s case, the peaceful demonstrations were not covered, because what is newsworthy about people gathering peacefully?
The coverage began after Baltimore residents had enough of being ignored and decided to up the volume.
Coverage only showed residents breaking car windows and throwing rocks at police officers.
What the media failed to mention was why a city was so overwhelmed.
Of course an entire city is saddened because a man, who was only guilty of running away from police because he feared them, died from injuries sustained at the hands of said police.
Of course the media didn’t mention that the police’s press release stating that local gangs were banding together to kill officers had no evidence behind it.
Of course the media didn’t show the heavy police presence in riot gear at Frederick Douglass High School where students were staging a peaceful protest.
Or how the police removed students from buses leaving the school and how that in turn raised tension.
All we saw and we continue to see is “angry black men and women burning their city to the ground.”
Society needs to educate itself, have compassion and strive for change in a world where minorities and the poor end up losing.
