For me, the least interesting and least serious issue about this video which lit up social media for days (and caused 2 men to have their names and reputation unfairly smeared), is what this guy did in snatching signs and a spray can out of young women’s hands. That’s caught the national attention, but people around the country have no appreciation for the context. We have a real issue here in Montgomery County, Maryland. There have been a few cases in recent years of black men being shot by our local police, but there’s an issue that’s been blowing up this year, and it has to do with the history of redlining in this community and the way our County schools have evolved to create a cluster in Bethesda rated among the best schools in the country, while schools only a few miles away struggle to send students on to 4-year colleges. The privilege embodied there infuses everything that’s wrong here, and greatly exacerbates the wealth inequalities which are among the biggest in the country — as homeowners in certain zip codes have seen their property values soar, even as they rebelled against a hike in property taxes a half dozen years ago.
It’s an issue that has resulted in very heated public forums about school redistricting in the last year, and very public racist comments from opponents of the redistricting study. It’s an issue that was front and center in our primary election this past week, as there was a very large field vying to make a runoff for one Board of Education seat. One candidate repeatedly asserted he was the last stand against busing the children in privileged areas to more ‘economically diverse’ areas.
It’s perhaps more than coincidence that the offender here was from Kensington, which is one of the towns likely to most affected by the redistricting. Right now, many Kensington lids are bused westward 4-5 miles to Bethesda schools, even though there are several high schools within a mile or two to the east. Parents of these kids are resisting, and even older homeowners there are also objecting to redistricting because they fear it will knock down their property values by 20%.
We are spending a fortune on Bethesda’s schools and constantly building them out to accommodate the parents with kids in neighboring communities like Kensington (where the cyclist is from). We just had a primary election where the main issue was demagoguing (by one Bethesda resident) about possible redistricting which would place areas like Kensington into school clusters that at least now are majority minority and not nearly as successful as the Bethesda schools, which are 90%+ white. It’s fine if there are some allies there — and I think we need to do much more to force the residents in that part of the county to confront how the County’s school system is probably the biggest driver of wealth inequality here.
I’m pretty sure though, that those who are really excited this guy was caught aren’t the least bit informed or interested in this debate — even though this actually plays a big part in national policy, given how many government workers and Congressional staffers (and even members of Congress) live in or around Bethesda. But, that’s not the debate here. Instead, we’re focused on a guy who pried a can out of a young woman’s hand because he didn’t like the message she was spreading. It could scarcely be more trivial. That’s titillating, but it’s just about the impact of an image of an older white dude trying to intimidate and silence privileged temporary white allies of the black lives movement. It doesn’t acknowledge the underlying issues which privilege both the cyclist and the sign posters.
Instead, let’s confront the parents of these young women and ask them if they’re going to vote for the referenda that will be on the ballot in November to block the County Council from raising property taxes again to fill the $500 million gap in school funding here, affecting many of the schools that are not in Bethesda. That matters.
We must work on our own privilege, and spend a lot less energy worrying about signs on a bike trail and the young white woman whose protest was to put up these signs — signs that aren’t really even challenging the residents in any meaningful way. Want to get involved in a meaningful fight? This Fall, help spread the message to oppose the ballot questions meant to make it much harder for the County Council to raise property taxes. Wherever you are — your member of Congress probably has a top staffer or two that lives out here. Or, maybe like Rep. Eliot Engel (nominally of the Bronx and Westchester County, NY) actually lives out here, in very wealthy Potomac. They benefit tremendously from a rigged system. Force them to confront it, and to reject efforts to lock their advantages in place.