No One Is a Thug

The people who rioted in Baltimore are not thugs. It’s time to stop using that word. Really, it’s time to stop the name-calling all together.

The images coming out of Baltimore are scary. They are not representative of the overall climate surrounding the death of Freddie Gray–which has been largely peaceful–but they are certainly scary. And one natural human impulse when we see something scary is to start distancing ourselves from the situation in every way possible.

We feel safer if we can put those who act in a way that frightens us into a box–both physically by incarcerating them and categorically by labeling them as somehow different from ourselves. When we do this, the situation becomes much simpler and more controllable: I am a human; the other is a thug. I can handle freedom; he can’t.

This is universal behavior. We could replace the word thug with many other labels that we put on individuals who behave in a way that frightens or disturbs us. Addict. Gangster. Even terrorist. The problems seem more manageable if we can think that the individuals involved are fundamentally different from ourselves.

The problem with that is, we are not fundamentally different. I am not saying that most people would loot a building or throw rocks at a policeman. Most people wouldn’t. Most black males in Baltimore wouldn’t. What I’m saying is if, for example, a small-town white woman sat down with a black teenager from Baltimore–even one with a violent history–and really spoke with him, they would both be able to recognize what they share as humans.

I am a small-town white woman who taught high school in Baltimore, so I can say this with a lot of confidence. In most essays, this is where I could make a sweeping statement that summarizes the things that I learned about my students–or where I would pick out a single student and use him or her as a representative example. But I find that I can’t. There is no single sentence that can summarize honestly, and no single student who can represent universally. I’ve written other essays, short stories, two books, and even a musical trying to express things that I learned in Baltimore, and those fall short. The students I taught have their own stories in which they are striving to live the best lives they can. They start from different places, they face different conflicts, and they end up in different places. Some may have been involved in the store-looting or rock-throwing. Some may have become police officers. Certainly, some of my former students have made destructive choices along the way–and may make more in the future. But those choices alone are not what define them. Before writing them off or dismissing them with labels based on a single action, we need to contextualize the behavior within the larger arc of each individual’s journey.

The same applies for those involved in the riots. Every person who protested or rioted has his or her own story. Every police officer has his or her own story. And those using the word “thug” have their own stories as well. I won’t dismiss them as “racists” or “idiots.” I do believe that all stories should be considered worthy of understanding, even the stories of those who have drawn different conclusions from life than I have. We cannot simply dismiss any person’s human experience by putting him or her in a box.

Life is complicated. The solution to the many problems that have led to the situation in Baltimore is going to be difficult. I am not trying to defend destructive or violent behavior as a productive way of engaging the world in a conversation. This is not about excusing or validating that behavior. It is about understanding it. There are many difficult issues facing cities that have gone unaddressed for years, including police brutality, unemployment, an ineffective “war on drugs,” and general discrimination that need to be addressed or we will continue to see anger bubbling over in other cities as it has most recently in Baltimore. And these issues need to be discussed and addressed without the name-calling. We are capable of better.

I learned that before I could really teach anything, I needed to listen to my students. And I believe that before we can address the larger issues in Baltimore, we need to take the time to understand their root causes.

The problems are so complex. But the first step is simple: Listen to the stories.