Here’s what I am thinking about as we head into the holiday season and then into a second Trump presidency: how do we really see each other and care for each other?
The president-elect (who will be sworn into office with a bevy of convictions and complaints lodged against him) spent the last few years using his words to separate us — opening up a national firehose of hate against trans people, women, and immigrants. His party can (and likely will) back up this hate with policy decisions. That means the potential for more bans on our bodies via more anti-abortion legislation and on things like accommodations for trans people. That could also mean fewer federal dollars for the things that keep our lives running.
“We have to think about the (collapsed Francis Scott) Key Bridge. We have to think about the Frederick Douglass Tunnel. We have to think about the Howard Street Tunnel. We have to think about the Red Line. We have to think about the Highway to Nowhere. All of those things could just go away, right? And, people have to understand how serious and how real the implications are for the city of Baltimore,” Mayor Brandon Scott told Baltimore reporters just after the election.
We won’t get through this without each other.
Shortly after the election earlier this month, I wrote that I wanted this outlet to be the way that it is as a result of what I saw during the first Trump presidency. I saw how thoroughly the structures that held this country were failing us and I wanted us to stand in that gap as best we can. That’s why you will always find our community resource page in each print issue and you’ll always find our government and community events calendar as a way to connect with other people looking to support and help our neighbors. This year, we stepped up our public events, meeting readers at get-out-the-vote events, community food giveaways, and at Lexington Market, because it’s harder to hate a journalist (which Trump would really like you to do) if you’ve hung out with one.
I am very clear-eyed about the kind of harm Donald Trump can do to this country. I also know that there are people who are already doing the hard work of creating a safer, better world.
I’m thinking of Tawanda Jones and Danielle Brown, who fight tirelessly to highlight the continuing crisis of police brutality. I’m thinking of community builders like the Tendea Family, who hold block cleanups and promote unity and nonviolence. I’m thinking of Black Alliance for Peace, an organization that offers us the political education we did not get in school, and shows us that the fight for liberation is a global one.
I’m so grateful that Baltimore photographer I.H. Webster III gave us access to his stores of holiday photos from Black Baltimore’s past so that we could publish them in this issue. Webster’s father and grandfather, the late I. Henry Phillips Jr. and the late I. Henry Phillips Sr., both made their livings capturing photos of this city and the people in it. You can find more of their work at The I. Henry Photo Project.
The photos in this issue are all from around 1950. They remind me that we have always been here and we have always found joy.
Editor’s Note: Data in the charts in the story titled “Maryland’s 2017 bail reform effort is jailing Baltimoreans at a higher rate” in Issue 50 was incorrectly attributed to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. That data came from the Maryland Judiciary.