From Gawker, David Graeber on Ferguson and the criminalization of American life. From Ferguson to Baltimore: Richard Rothstein on the fruits of government-sponsored segregation. Stephen Deets on why Baltimore is not Ferguson. Baltimore’s new plantations: Corey Robin on race, police and how little things have changed since Frederick Douglass. Emily Badger on the long, painful and repetitive history of how Baltimore became Baltimore. Rebecca Leber on how liberal policies didn’t fail Baltimore — here’s what did. Jelani Cobb on what racism has done to Baltimore. Black culture is not the problem: Baltimore’s troubles stem from the continued profitability of racism. In Baltimore and across the country, black faces in high places haven’t helped average black people. The white man’s bargain: A strange idea has been running through some of the commentary about Baltimore — wasn’t electing Barack Obama supposed to fix this? Ana Swanson on eight reasons that racism is still very real in America. Few conservatives take police abuses seriously: There is overwhelming evidence of widespread civil-rights violations and unlawful brutality — yet the movement's reflex is still to ignore or deny the problem. Baltimore’s prosecutor gets it: The charges in the Freddie Gray case show that scaring cops is the best way to fight police abuse. Aaron Sankin on how ow charging 6 Baltimore cops with killing Freddie Gray made Marilyn Mosby a star.
All your commentary about riots is bullshit and confused and tendentious and fuck off, and economists, God bless ‘em (no, not really), have a name for this: Politically motivated riots are a form of altruistic punishment — look it up. Stop saying “violence isn’t the answer” to Baltimore’s problems — sometimes rioting works.
