[One of many responses to a recent thread on area listservs. The original article in question is here]
I am a second generation DC resident who has lived in the Petworth area for plus 50 years. I would first note to new residents that the Afro [newspaper] has been the paper of record for the Afro-American community from beyond the dawn of the twentieth century, when the general press ignored Black news except for Black on White crime. Secondly, I think there is a new dynamic in action with our new changing neighborhoods. What used to be be ignored because it affected only the black community is now being confronted. There is no reason that anyone should tolerate open air drug markets, simply because "that's the way is".
I might know Little Joe on the corner who's being dealing for 10 years since he was 12. I might know Miss Mary, who is his grandmother and allows Little Joe to live and deal from her home. Miss Mary has been good to the neighbors, goes to church and is such a lovely person. But there's Little Joe and his hustle, his posse, the trash, and the criminal activity - car break-ins, street robberies, home invasions - that occur when criminals feel safe. And Little Joe says, "I know Mr Brown got hit upside the head and in the hospital. That's a shame! What you looking at me for?"
I saw the Afro article as one part in a conversation, which Bill Cosby started on Black Community Values and Behaviors in America. Because our communities in DC are now mixed ethnically, Little Joe and Miss Mary's situation is no longer just "us black folks not airing our business or compassionate tolerance - what else can the poor boy do?". This conversation will continue. And things will get better.
Ken Johnson
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