Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Freedom Rider: Trump and Baltimore 
Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
31 Jul 2019
Freedom Rider: Trump and Baltimore 
Freedom Rider: Trump and Baltimore 

Anyone feeling the need to defend Baltimore from Trump’s opinions ought to talk about what really ails that city.

“There is more reason to rise up in righteous indignation over the Keith Davis verdict than Trump’s latest rant.”

There is only one person worthy of being defended in the wake of Donald Trump’s twitter tirade against Congressional Black Caucus member Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore. That man is Keith Davis, Jr.

In 2015 Davis was shot by Baltimore police. When he survived the 30-shot fusillade they planted evidence and charged him with the murder of another man. After three bites at the prosecutorial apple Davis was convicted of the killing this week. 

When Trump isn’t telling black and brown Americans to “go back where they came from” he is getting into petty fights with members of Congress and making them look good, even when they are not deserving of great praise. 

Elijah Cummings is the latest recipient of the undeserved gift. Acting in his capacity as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee he criticized Trump immigration policy and treatment of asylum seekers at the border. He also subpoenaed documents from members of the administration and the president’s family and ended up in the crosshairs as a result. In his usual fashion Trump went on an unhinged, days long diatribe. He labeled the city “rat infested” and said “no human being”, that is to say anyone other than black people, should want to live there.

“The days of shock and outrage over every Trump utterance should end.”

The response was all too predictable. Baltimoreans defended their city and proclaimed that it is not rat infested and that they are in fact good, hard working people. A CNN anchor was moved to tears as he spoke of his hometown. Pundits and politicians competed with one another to see who could condemn Trump most vociferously.  

There is no reason to spend time defending Baltimore, uplifting Cummings, excoriating Trump, or wringing hands about his presidency. Trump received 2 million more votes in 2016 than Mitt Romney did in 2012 precisely because he made blatant racist appeals. He stripped the Republican Party down to its barest essence as the white people’s party and white people lined up right behind him.

The days of shock and outrage over every Trump utterance should end. Cool headed analysis is needed and that may mean that Elijah Commings and his cohort should not be elevated because of Trump’s latest evil musing. Cummings is nothing more than a go along to get along member of the black political class that has worked against the interests of the people they represent. 

“Cool headed analysis is needed.”

When Cummings constituents and other Baltimore residents rose up in protest after the 2015 police killing of Freddie Gray he was either silent or condemned the righteous protest. In 2017 a policeman was killed in the Harlem Parkneighborhood under very suspicious circumstances. He was scheduled to testify against his fellow officers and was then shot to death. Harlem Park was treated like a gigantic crime scene and was cordoned off as the police saw fit. Residents weren’t permitted to move about without police permission and Cummings was silent about this blatantly unconstitutional act.

Baltimore is a city in need. It suffers from the ills of deindustrialization, unemployment and gentrification which is displacing the black population. Anyone feeling the need to defend Baltimore from Trump’s opinions ought to talk about what really ails that city. Like many others it is majority black, for now, and is in the hands of black elected officials. 

Black Agenda Report has reported extensively on Baltimore’s suffering at the hands of the compliant black misleadership class. A former mayor vetoed a bill to increase the minimum wage. The banksterscontinue their practice of denying black residents mortgages in hopes of getting them out of that city altogether. 

“Baltimore suffers from the ills of deindustrialization, unemployment and gentrification which is displacing the black population.”

Baltimore is a microcosm of the urban areas abandoned by whites for decades but now targeted for their return and the expulsion of black people. The black people allowed to remain in positions of authority know the rules all too well. They are mayors or congressmen or police commissioners or city council people because they promise not to not rock any boats. 

Condemning Trump is akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Taking on the black district attorney who victimized Keith Davis requires more intestinal fortitude. Baltimore police violence and corruption are endemic and the cops are notoriously crookedas Black Agenda Report has also reported. But prosecutors work hand in had with the occupying police enemy in Baltimore and around the country.

There is more reason to rise up in righteous indignation over the Keith Davis verdict than Trump’s latest rant. Davis’s plight is that of all black people. Trump represents the white people who tell Cummings and company what to do. Despite all protestations to the contrary they do as they are told and deny minimum wage increases, and provide protection to police, banksters and other malefactors. This week we should not spend much time thinking about Elijah Cummings. It is Keith Davis who should be on our minds.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.       

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Black Misleadership Class

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Is The “Conscience of the Congress” Unconscious?
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Is The “Conscience of the Congress” Unconscious?
30 November 2022
The Congressional Black Caucus has strayed far from the politics of its original members.
DC Government’s Racial Equity Plan is Elite Capture by The State
Pan-African Community Action PACA
DC Government’s Racial Equity Plan is Elite Capture by The State
30 November 2022
Racial inequity is the result of racist and capitalist policies and can't be defeated by the self-interested Black political class. 
Grandstanding: Mayoral Candidate Karen Bass Says She Can Solve LA’s Homelessness Crisis
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Grandstanding: Mayoral Candidate Karen Bass Says She Can Solve LA’s Homelessness Crisis
27 July 2022
As the late Glen Ford said, the Black misleadership class has no shame.
You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
27 July 2022
The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democrat
The Black Misleadership Class Attempts to Obfuscate their Carceral State Correlation with the Bogeyman of “white wokeness"
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The Black Misleadership Class Attempts to Obfuscate their Carceral State Correlation with the Bogeyman of “white wokeness"
14 December 2021
At a time that we need more justice and access to democracy, the Black Misleadership Class is fighting for more prisons and tawdry police refor
The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
Riva Enteen
The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
08 July 2021
The most dangerous component of ‘MSM’ fake news is arguably propaganda by omission.
Black Liberal, Your Time is Up
Yannick Giovanni Marshall
Black Liberal, Your Time is Up
01 July 2021
You are here to show your black skin so that you can claim the mantle of authority on anti-Blackness that white liberals have bestowed upon you.
The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
Pascal Robert
The Great “Awokening” and Ruling Class Uses for Racial Grievance Discourse 
09 June 2021
The Black political class is wedded to the centrist Democrats for its “fatback and biscuits” patronage.
The Class Collaboration of “Justice” 
Erica Caines
The Class Collaboration of “Justice” 
29 April 2021
After the guilty verdict, the clarity that was collectively growing became squandered with the words “it’s not justice, it’s accountability.”
Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
31 March 2021
Black politicians shamelessly rallied to Cuomo, ridiculously comparing him to Emmett Till and the Central Park Five, in hopes that he will dispense

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    27 Jan 2023
    Police killings increase, Nicaragua, and Cuba in Africa
  • Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    27 Jan 2023
    Samuel Sinyangwe is founder of the Mapping Police Violence Project.
  • Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    27 Jan 2023
    Erica Caines is publisher of the website Hood Communist. She is also co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas team.
  • Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    27 Jan 2023
    Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the author of the recently published book Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s…
  • The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    25 Jan 2023
    The plan for an Atlanta police training facility known as "Cop City" is the latest phase of state repression in that region. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us