Ruth Benedict Could Save Baltimore: Part I

Ruth Fulton Benedict is my favorite anthropologist and the first female president of the American Anthropological Association.  When it comes to Baltimore, Benedict had this dystopian tragedy figured out decades ago.  She laid out both the problems and the answers in her book Patterns of Culture. 

What we see manifested in this troublesome summer is seated in her quote, “Group ethos is just personality writ large.”  In essence, Benedict says that any society unconsciously selects, supports, gives obeisance to and promotes the character traits it admires and sees as beneficial.  You are the person the people around you want you to be.  Unfortunately, our nation is paying a horrendous cost for what that societal self-selection is doing in Baltimore. 

But first, let’s ask the gorilla to please leave the room.

Item 1:  We give the police extraordinary power which requires extraordinary accountability.  If what happened to Freddy Gray is the result of abuse of police power then those responsible must be prosecuted to the full extent of both the criminal and civil law.  

Item 2:  Freddy Gray was not a worthy person.  The fact that he is dead does not change what he was in life.  He has been involved in 20 criminal court cases involving drugs and stolen property, served time and broken parole.

Item 3:  Absolutely nothing excuses the legal and moral culpability of rioters and looters.  They are opportunistic criminals and anthropological savages.

Having removed the drama, let’s look at the facts.  What does, or does not, produce this dysfunction.

Do they need better schools?  Baltimore ranks 4^th among all major U.S. cities in per pupil expenditure.  The public schools of Baltimore spend $16,578 per pupil; that is 52% above the national average.  Yet, 25% fail to graduate high school and 50% fail to pass the state High School Assessment.  SAT scores are 100 points below the national average.

Do the people of the Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park area need more financial help?  According to the Baltimore Sun, Maryland has one of the most generous welfare systems in the nation. A mother with two children who is participating in the seven common welfare programs could receive benefits worth more than $35,000.  That is $15,000 above the poverty line for a family of three.  

Do they need more jobs?  Only 2.9% of full-time workers are poor, while 23.9% of non-working adults are.  The nation’s unemployment rate is 5.5%; Baltimore’s is 8.4%; but it is 50% in Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park.  So where are the employers?  Only seven states have a worse business climate than Maryland.   When you rank tax burdens from lowest to highest, Maryland is near the top.   It is 40th in terms of business taxes, and 45th in terms of personal-income taxes.  The state’s small businesses face the nation’s seventh-highest marginal tax rates.

            Do we need to release the prisoners from these neighborhoods?  Is there any evidence that the men currently incarcerated were good fathers to begin with?  Two-thirds of all births in Baltimore are to unmarried women.  Do the fathers stick around after inseminating their women?  Evidently not, because 60% of all families are headed by single parents.   According to the FBI stats, Baltimore is the 5^th most dangerous cities in the United States.

            Money is not the answer.  Neither is lack of it the problem.  The people of Baltimore, from the mayor to the young men on the street, are making choices that reflect the standards of the group.  The dysfunction of this city is their, “personality writ large.”  We can not change that group think, but they can, and I think I know how. 

            Study anthropology while keeping the faith.