All posts by KINETICS

The Baltimore United for Change coalition would like to thank everyone for reaching out to us, and wanting to connect. It has been beautiful to see so many people in Baltimore come together during this time. Like many of you, we have been trying to navigate so many pieces and layers to serve the community, tend to the need of jailed protesters, the homeless, support our school children, and provide trainings while all along maintaining our lives.

Baltimore United for Change (BUC) is a coalition of organizations and activists with a long track record of working for social justice in Baltimore. The BUC coalition came together three days after the murder of Freddie Gray, and hit the ground running. Through our coalition and with your support, we have been able to raise over $100,000 for jail support. Of those arrested 229 were released, 97 wear bailed out and 33 people are still in jail (19 of them have bails greater than $50,000; 1 for $500,000). When Baltimore City schools were closed and throughout the week our partners provided safe spaces and fed thousands of students and families throughout the city.

The issues facing Black Baltimore are vast and require a diverse skill set. Many of you have various skills, talents, love and appreciation for Baltimore and want to see the community flourish – we welcome you and ask that you add your organization, institution or self to the skills/organizational bank; Working collaboratively we can begin to meet the needs of the community.  It is our goal to move beyond “reActivism” and build a holistic community network for sustainable, long-term change in Baltimore.

In love & service,

Jamye Wooten
Baltimore United for Change Coalition

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Dayvon Love co-founder of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and member of the Baltimore United Coalition stated “Baltimore just shows the sophistication of white supremacy, and how it operates” on Saturday’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” on MSNBC.

Love said, “I think people reduce racism to individual white folks in leadership, black people who are succumbed to white folks, and I think Baltimore just shows the sophistication of white supremacy, and how it operates, how it takes black figures, put[s] them in institutional position,s to give the veneer of justice, when really the same institutional arrangement exists.”

Earlier, he argued, “I think there’s an important distinction to be made between our Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and our city State’s Attorney Marilyn J Mosby. Many people, I think, would say that our mayor is someone who has capitulated to the corporate structure of the Democratic Party, and many of the corporate interests in this city. And I think, as we see, what happens in our society writ-large is that oftentimes individual black people are put in positions of power or leadership in white-controlled, dominating institutions, which brings more black people into those institutional arrangements, which undermines our ability to develop a kind of communal, independent black institution-building as the basis of our work.”

Love also said that after the announcement of the charges brought against six officers in Freddie Gray’s death, “you saw black people out in the streets, celebrating, hugging each other. We actually went out there giving away food, and giving away pamphlets that had information about how to deal with law enforcement, just talking about the work that we’re doing, and getting people’s information. So, it was just such a beautiful scene, and to me, what was an amazing contrast, was contrasting that with the level of militarization around it. So, while you have all these black folks that are embracing each other, loving each other, affirming each other, in the presence of that, it almost seems like, you know, the institution of civil society doesn’t want us to do that, given all the military presence around.”