Salon: Know Who’s Really To Blame For #BaltimoreRiots? America!

by William Teach | May 1, 2015 7:11 am

I wasn’t planning on doing back to back posts on Baltimore, I have a couple “climate change” articles in the cue, but, this one from Salon’s Connor Lynch …… hey, wait, his name is triggering, and he should be banned until he changes it …. is a hoot, and about as bat guano insane as you’d expect

Fox News blames Baltimore for America’s sins: What Hannity & O’Reilly ignore about the roots of the Freddie Gray tragedy[1]
Sean Hannity & Bill O’Reilly blame unrest on liberals and black communities. But, in truth, America is to blame

Over the past week, as protests have spread across the country and violence has calmed, there has been a lot of discussion about why such destruction broke out in the streets of Baltimore, and why there is such rampant poverty and crime in those streets. There has been a lot of confusion throughout, but in the right-wing media, it is quite clear what has caused the current chaos in Baltimore — the Democrats and their bleeding-heart welfare programs.

Indeed, on the right wing, there is simply no other cause for what has happened than the black communities’ dependence on government handouts. Of course the children are going to destroy the community when all of their mothers are single welfare queens! To Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, this is quite simply a problem of black culture and dependence: “With all due respect, the government cannot create opportunities for young people who are uneducated, disrespectful and unmotivated,” O’Reilly said[2]. “The city of Baltimore has been run by black politicians and Democrats for decades.” On his own program, Hannity resounded[3]: “Isn’t this a minority-run city?”

Now, the right will push this premise until it is blue in the face — because it sees the events in Baltimore as an opportunity. An opportunity to blame black people and Democrats for all of the problems that are currently under a microscope. One headline over at Breitbart effectively sums up this strategy[4]: “Baltimore is a Democrat problem, not America’s problem.”

Of course, the right’s perception is laughably myopic and predictable. When is it not the “welfare queens’” fault over at Fox News? In reality, what has happened in Baltimore over the past 50 years is not a black problem or a Democrat problem — it is as American a problem as they come.

At that point, Mr. Lynch desperately attempts to find a way to Blame America. Reading between the lines, we can understand two things: first, Liberals hate America, and really love to blame it for everything (when they can’t blame people on the Right. Though, sometimes, both).

Second, they are either understanding that what is happening in Baltimore, and other liberal cities, looks really bad for Democrats and their policies and that the policies themselves are complete failures, or they really believe that their policies are Good And Right And Beneficial, so it must be Someone Else’s fault. In this case, America’s.

They really do not want to discuss that their liberal policies are bad for majority-minority cities. While mostly white Very Liberal cities like Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, among others, are doing pretty well, most Very Liberal mostly Black cities are not doing well. Low property values, poor social values, high unemployment, low wages, failing students, etc and so on.

What is going on in Baltimore is indeed a result of many factors — and it is an American problem that we should all be discussing. But instead, the right wing is simply pointing fingers and acting as if this problem started a few years ago. But this problem did not start a few years ago. It is a result of many decades of racist policies and then many more decades of disastrous drug policies. Throw in the nationwide collapse of the working class, and politicians who embraced the capitalists over the workers, and this is what you get. And as long as capitalists continue to own more property than entire communities, and buy politicians to vote for their interests, riots may very well become a regular occurrence.

Let me ask: why did this majority-minority city not build a new foundation? Why did this city which hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1967 succeed? Why do we see the same thing repeated in Detroit, Birmingham, Camden, and so many other majority-minority cities that have been Democratic strongholds since at least the late 1960’s? Why do Blacks vote 90% for Democrats when their policies are utter disasters for Blacks?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[5]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[6].