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LBS Alerts
For Whom the Cameras Roll: Media followspeople, just not THE people, in Baltimore
May 15, 2015 in Featured // New Jail , Same Old Story: Sel l ing Out Baltimore’s Grassroots
May 12, 2015 in Featured // On Masters and Slav es: The Cringe Worthy Attempt to Recuse Marilyn Mosby
May 7, 2015 in Featured // Open letter to Prince: In Baltimore, V isit the Grassroots. Otherwise, You’re
Drowning Them Out
May 2, 2015 in Featured // Fear of a Black Prosecutor: The Maryland FOP’s Subtle Slander of Marilyn Mosby
April 30, 2015 in Featured // For Whom the Cameras Rol l : Media fol lows people, just not THE people, in
Baltimore
About Us Programs Contributors Donate Contact Us
LBS IN THE NEWS LBS WIRE COMMUNITY PARTNERS THE LBS REPORT POLITICAL RADAR
AMERICA AT LARGE POETIC POLITICS SHOP
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Tuesday, a beautiful thing happened in Baltimore. One media outlet cov ered it, while dozens cov ered the v iolence.
It is impossible to truly know what’s going on in Baltimore if you’re not here. The complexity of the dynamics and the
history means ev en the best media cov erage can prov ide only a snap shot.
The question is what types of people get cov ered, and what types of people, ev ents and ideas get lost when we try
to fit complex ev ents into l imited boxes.
The recent images of pol iticians shooting basketbal l at the Clov erdale basketbal l cohurt near Druid Hil l Park is a
prime example of the problem. Larry Hogan and the establ ishment pol iticians v isiting Sandtown to play basketbal l
are especial ly frustrating giv en the story from the Real News Network about Friend of a Friend. Friend of a Friend is a
grassroots organization which had done grassroots work in Sandtown-Winchester for years, raising money
independently to rebuild a basketbal l court in the Gilmore Homes housing project only to be stal led by bureaucratic
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red tape.
These basketbal l -playing pol iticians are reacting to an ev ent that happened yesterday which was almost completely
ignored by the major media, a community meeting and cookout held at the court to show unity and community against
the narrativ e of v iolence.
Pol itics in most cities is reactiv e; Pol iticians fol low popular opinion and tack back and forth with the prev ail ing wind.
This incident has magnified this dynamic because the people inv olv ed, not only black but poor, are so ignored in the
dominant pol itical discourse ev en co-option comes to them late.
This selectiv e media portrayal produces a flawed narrativ e around black leadership and pol itical mov ement. The
media looks for personal ities– those with clout, money, and power– and traditional ly frames their stories around them.
This l imits the narrativ e around black leadership to what is too often a simpl istic notion of el ite “enl ightened”
leadership or charismatic black (usual ly male) leadership. This l imits conceptions of who can be truly Black to not only
frame out women, but also grassroots blacks of al l genders who do not fit the traditional charismatic or el ite molds.
This is shown by the fact that the Clov erdale story was picked up by larger media outlets only after it was l inked to a
professional basketbal l player. This obscures the fact that these ev ents happen consistently in Black neighborhoods,
church cookouts, youth groups, boy scouts, and other organizations continuing the growth of the community despite
ov erwhelming structural disadv antages.
Another prime example of this is the march held Wednesday by
student organizers, many associated with the Baltimore United for
Change Coal ition. While the media continued to replay footage of a
burning CV S, 5,000 youth were peaceful ly demonstrating for justice.
Wasn’t this ev ent worth more than just a couple of minutes in the 11
o’clock news? The feat of organizing and fearlessness of young
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people l ike Korey Johnson (pictured left) doesn’t fit the “Baltimore as
Thunderdome” mold, and thus is subsumed by repetition of stale
notion of black criminal ity and el ite leadership.
Black people do not need el ite or charismatic leaders to sav e them–
they need recognition of their indigenous cultural resource and for
people to inv est in them not anointed representativ es claiming to
speak for them.
The organizers of the community meeting and cookout Tuesday were regular people, not super heroes, not the iv y
league educated, not pastors or media personal ities, but regular people. As hard as they try, the media wil l almost
nev er know about these moments of ev eryday leadership which define the social l ife of our black communities, so
often framed as deficient and lacking in cultural resources. This is wrong, but it happens because the culture and
experiential resources of these communities simply do not fit within the establ ished boxes of American media.
Alternativ e resources l ike the blogosphere and independent, commercial -free news sources offer some hope, but the
problem is broader than a lens, and bigger than a basketbal l court. The v ery way in which we conceiv e of black
leadership needs to change.
For more information v isit Bmoreunited.org
Lawrence GrandpreLawrence Grandpre is the
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Assistant Director for Research
and Publ ic Pol icy for LBS. He is a
graduate of Baltimore City
Col lege High School where he
was a recipient of the
International Baccalaureate
Diploma. His primary extra
curricular focus on high school
was debate, where he was
Chesapeake Regional champion
and 4 time qual ifier for the
National Championship
tournament. He continued this
focus on pol itical scholarship at
Whitman Col lege in the state of
Washington, where he was the
recipient of the Wil l iam O.
Douglas Scholarship and the
Maxey Award as top student in
the pol itics department. He has worked at Towson Univ ersity, coaching their debate team to
2nd in the nation in 2011 and is creativ e director for the “New Timbuktu” website and cel l
phone app, an upcoming LBS digital archiv e project.
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By Dayv on Lov e On October 31st 2010, a group of Black-led
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RT @nomoresilence65: Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot and kil led this day in 2010. #remember
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New from @LBSBaltimore "New Jail , Same Old Story: Sel l ing Out Baltimore's Grassroots " ht.ly/N0uD4
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We're on the mov e for community control of schools! Support Langston Hughes Elem. Cook-Out/Demo at 5:30
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We're on the mov e for community control of schools! Support Langston Hughes Elem. Cook-Out/Demo at
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TOMORROW March and Cook Out to Keep Langston Hughes Elementary Open #bmoreunited
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TUNE IN: LBS CEO @SmartBlackMan is on @WEAA_FM NOW discussing the #BaltimoreUprising and a new
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