Lawrence T. Brown - The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America

We had been drugged nearly to death

by proslavery compromises.

A radical change was needed

in our whole system.

Nothing is better calculated

to effect the desired change

than the slow, steady and certain

progress of the war.

Frederick Douglass, The Mission of the War, January 13, 1864

The first bloodshed of Americas Civil War occurred on April 19, 1861, during a deadly riot on Pratt Street in Baltimore when the citys Confederate sympathizers attacked Union Army troops passing through the city. The blood spilled that day near the intersection of Pratt and Light Streets belonged to 4 Union soldiers and 12 members of a pro-Confederate mob. And with that, Lincoln placed Baltimore City under martial law.

Throughout its long history, Baltimore has been a city defined by striking conflicts that threaten to tear the city apart. Traitorous Confederates vs. loyal Unionists. White Baltimore police vs. Black people grieving after Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination. The Baltimore Police Department vs. Black high school students grieving on the day Freddie Gray was laid to rest. Ever since blood was spilled during the Pratt Street Riot, Baltimore has been a city warring with itself, just as America has remained in turmoil over the question of whether Black Lives really matter.

Since 2015, the term racial equity has increasingly become a popular buzzword in many philanthropic and government circles, coinciding with the rise of the Movement for Black Lives and #BlackLivesMatter. It has become fashionable, even popular, for public officials and philanthropic organizations to place the label racial equity on their work while having little understanding of the precise ways Black neighborhoods were redlined or how racial segregation has been enforced and maintained. After declaring themselves to be staunch racial equity advocates, both politicians and philanthropists happily laud themselves for doing good work without clarity concerning what racial equity means.

Given the persistence and permanence of American racism, clarity about what racial equity is and why it is needed to make Black neighborhoods matter is vitally important. The reason government and organizations must foster racial equity across the nation is not to help Black neighborhoods nor out of a fuzzy sense of moral obligation. Racial equity is required to dismantle American Apartheid, which continues to damage thousands of Black neighborhoods across the nation.

Throughout Americas history, Black communities, cities, and economic districts have been repeatedly disrupted, deprived, demolished, and destroyed. Before the Civil War, free Black and maroon communities were threatened by the clutches of enslavers and slave traders along with the deployments of slave catchers and patrols. In response to Black political activism and urban uprisings of the 1960s, the US government intensified police repression and authorized a war on Black communitiesunder color of the War on Drugsinstead of fixing the damage that the federal government caused in those communities.

Today, many Black neighborhoods at the core of hypersegregated metropolitan areas remain deeply redlined and are confronted with everything from urban apartheid to toxic pollution. As evidence of Americas antipathy toward Black neighborhoods, both a Democrat and a Republican took turns demonizing and denigrating majority Black jurisdictions in Maryland within a span of several months in 2019. Their acidic language illustrates how Black neighborhoods are often viewed with disgust by elected officials and how Americas abusive treatment of Black neighborhoods continues. Maryland Delegate Mary Ann Lisanti, a Democrat representing Harford County, called Prince Georges Countythe nations wealthiest concentration of Black affluencea nigger district.

In their stigmatizing language, neither Lisanti nor Trump acknowledged how local, state, and federal governments inflicted severe damage on Black neighborhoods and spaces through devastating policies, practices, systems, and budgets. This damage sustained from intentional government actions explains the conditions of such neighborhoods today. But Trump and Lisanti are not alone in devaluing Black neighborhoods. Research reveals that many White Americans harbor stereotypes about Black areas and devalue the real estate prices of homes in Black neighborhoods, even when they do not hold negative views about Black people.

This discursive redlining has devastating consequences because it undergirds and underwrites policies, practices, systems, and budgets that impact Black neighborhoods. Whether Black populations reside in wealthier places such as Prince Georges County or less wealthy places such as Baltimore City, where majority Black populations reside does not matter.

To chart a path forward so that Black neighborhoods can thrive, an honest examination of American history is needed. Racial equity is needed to dismantle spatial racism (a process) and produce spatial equity (the outcome).

To implement a robust racial equity strategy, government officials, philanthropies, corporations, and nonprofits must follow these five steps: