Message from the Executive Director

Baltimore Uprising

By Janlee Wong, MSW

Recently, while attending the annual NASW leadership meeting (ALM) in DC, I heard the news that six Baltimore police officers with charged with serious crimes ranging from murder to assault. In a room full of social workers there was a sign of relief after watching a week of peaceful protesters and not so peaceful rioting, burning and looting. We live in an instant society which means if we don’t hear or see something done about the injustice, the old lingering sense of justice forgotten comes out and soon manifests into something ugly and violent.

The victim in Baltimore, Freddie Gray, was another in a string of police violence victims including Michael Brown, Eric Gardner and Walter Scott. While there is a long history of police violence against African American males, it’s only recently through the advent of social media and smartphones has each incident felt like we were part of it, as if we were there and consequently significantly outraged.

We do hunger for justice and it does start with officers being charged. It does start with reform of police use of violence policies and addressing racial profiling but it doesn’t end there. The mayor of Baltimore asked for jobs and opportunities for young people but that’s not enough. For years we’ve known what the problems are but we address them piecemeal, in the short term and without hearing the voices of those most impacted.

What is the roadmap to peace and prosperity? We have and have had programs for education, housing, nutrition and income assistance but we have unacceptable rates of poverty, crime and disproportionality in our juvenile and adult systems. Too often we say what is needed yet those in need are not included and their voices not heard. At the NASW leadership meeting, we heard that NASW leadership and membership voices were not heard. The meeting then became a voices heard meeting. With that comes great responsibility, can those whose voices are heard take the next step toward building and strengthening the organization? It’s easy to criticize and tear down something than it is to build something. Doesn’t this apply to our communities and society?

Our traditional systems-oriented answer for deep poverty and discrimination/oppression is when we invest in our communities we can break the cycle of despair and poverty and start building our communities and our society. We want quick and instant solutions that will ease our pain and suffering but those solutions are fleeting, and the pain and suffer remain. Are we really hearing the voices of those who are severely disadvantaged and oppressed? Does the plan include the voices of the generations to come?

It does seem to be overwhelming to hear the many voices but not a single voice. It’s just as overwhelming to see that solving our problems is a many generations to come effort. How can we hear today’s generation and those yet to come? Yet we know what needs to be done, and it needs to be done with all involved with an eye to the future. The roadmap is a collective effort and an individual effort. Let us work in concert with others, but let us each make a pledge to do things ourselves at a scale where we might effect some change. Our collective effort is to make all of our voices heard, and to hold our representatives who hold the purse strings responsible to invest in our communities for the near and long term future. Our individual effort is to bring what we can as social workers to every forum, every discussion, every act that we take. With our collective and individual efforts, we must make sure not only are all voices heard, but somehow we make it permanent and long lasting. Only then can we change the definition of “Baltimore Uprising” to “Baltimore Rising Up.”