An interview with author D. Watkins

Zin Telling

This Fresh Air interview takes place between author D. Watkins and Terry Gross. Watkins has just published a book telling stories of how he grew up on the streets of Baltimore. He gives an extremely personal and insightful look into a Baltimore ghetto. I think it relates very well to our reading of Loic Waquant and to the Pruitt Igoe documentary.

Watkins tells us of the ghetto which was created by white supremacy and racist housing tactics. The Baltimore described exemplifies the idea of a “Black Belt.” He states how hard it was to find a job in the ghetto and says, in fact, that it was easier to find a gun than to find a job. This speaks directly to the Waquant reading. Watkins gives a poignant look into the effects of the war on drugs. Lives were greatly affected and Watkins says that all people in his circle have at least one person who is close to them who was directly affected by the crack epidemic.

He shows how few opportunities for growth people in the ghetto have and describes it as a trap which is almost impossible to get out of. Like in Pruitt Igoe, the Baltimore ghetto described shows how deprived people were from the opportunities that it takes to have a good life. Both places were very reminiscent of a prison. In Pruitt Igoe we saw that the basic human needs such as waste disposal and education were ignored. A mom has to create a blackboard on a wall in her home to survive, for her children to thrive. Watkins talks about how segregated it really is when you live on the streets and the culture shock he felt when he left home for college. He was able to leave the ghetto but was one of the lucky few.  This is an example of what Waquant calls the “(denial of) access to cultural capital.” PG 119

I think that D. Watkins’ portrayal of the streets of Baltimore shows us the results of discriminatory housing policies and the propaganda that fueled the war on drugs. We’ve seen how the war on drugs led to the detriment of the ghetto, which helps to contribute to the perpetuation of the racial caste system operating in the U.S. today (Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow.)

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/10/01/444978356/baltimore-author-discusses-living-and-dying-while-black