Rethinking the History of the Present

Just read a deeply saddening story in Salon where local Democratic Party leadership early in the 20^th century looks a lot like Republican Party leadership today. 

The author argues persuasively that in Baltimore (Ferguson, Cleveland…) “the protests are not really (or primarily) about policing,” so even praise-worthy proposals for policing reform are likely to have far less impact than even progressive reformers might hope.

And there are other parts of the story that link our history to our present.  The analysis of how the mayor used health inspectors as agents of the law enforcing segregation is mirrored in widely-praised aspects of community policing today that include police problem solving partnerships with probation and parole officers, health inspectors, and INS agents.

“In 1925, 18 Baltimore neighborhood associations came together to form the “Allied Civic and Protective Association” for the purpose of urging both new and existing property owners to sign restrictive covenants….” 

Again, approaches to community policing usually seen as innovative include bringing together the local business and property owning community to provide additional surveillance, share information, raise money for the police or to put up signs (one in a Seattle neighborhood read in huge letters: ‘Illegal Activity in this Area Strictly Prohibited’), and provide an army of letter writers ready to speak at city council meetings in support of aggressive preventive patrol.

One idea in the piece strikes me as in need of push back, however.

“Baltimore’s ghetto was not created by private discrimination, income differences, personal preferences, or demographic trends, but by purposeful action of government in violation of the Fifth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Amendments.”

While I support the overall point in this piece, because it is critically important for us all to remember that WE did this—that is, the government acting in our name.  And more importantly that those among the WE with the most power made it happen.

However, the WE doing this is only partially you and I, only indirectly average Americans.  The WE is much more so elites…including—at the center of the equation—private sector elites.  So, this quote, in my view is both accurate and misleading.

Government agents, acting in the name of those with the most influence on government actions (business elites), made this happen…in our name, but the ‘in our name’ part has to also be unpacked. 

Not to erase our own culpability.  Not to ignore the fact that (returning to the quote) that our own individual and shared ‘private discrimination and personal preferences’ are part of what made, and continues to make, this happen. 

But to avoid playing into the hands of the far right by suggesting big government is the primary and most notorious problem here.

For instance, the piece later notes that “Restrictive covenants were not merely private agreements between homeowners; they frequently had government sanction.”  This is true…but these were also (and primarily) private agreements between property owners.  That part is not only not trivial, but it is the source of the most powerful forms of agency in this equation.

And I did not know the George Romney story…an action his son would likely consider the worst form of ‘socialism’ today.  And…this is the first (and I suspect the only) time I will say I agree with Spiro Agnew!