While I respect Tricia Bishop’s welcome to the people who helped to pick up trash in Baltimore (“Plenty of trash to go around,” Aug. 15), as a former educator about issues of race, I am less inclined to be as inviting or grateful.
To my mind, this effort is energized by a reaction to President Donald Trump’s tweets about Baltimore and has all the hallmarks of the white establishment’s attitude of how they (we) have come in to “help” others who supposedly “can’t” help themselves. This is both political and personal condescension.
Will those who are picking up trash also help with the mess created by the history of systemic racism that plays into the sense of hopelessness for so many poor communities? Will they energize each other to question and change their biases? Will they get on the bus to picket for social and political equity? Maybe that’s happening, but I doubt it.
Yes, trash is a problem that needs attention, but there are also much larger issues that need to be addressed.
Gilbert Bliss
The writer is a psychotherapist in Towson.
Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.
