Young Baltimore Speaks: “I don’t enjoy being a part of this… I feel obligated to do this.”

By Wide Angle Youth Media for Youth Radio

Producers at Wide Angle Youth Media in Baltimore, MD talked with youth at a student-led protest on April 29th, 2015 over the death of Freddie Gray.

“I think that the way mainstream media has been portraying the young people in the past two days is a disgrace. There’s a lot of information that is missing from the stories that are being reported. I wish people would talk to people on the ground more instead of just watching mainstream media.”

-Michaela Brown, 22, Morgan State University

“I don’t enjoy being a part of this, because I wish it wasn’t happening. But, it’s like I have to be a part of this, and I feel obligated to do this. The real issues are being completely ignored by the media because they use the image of rioting to label people as ‘thugs’ and ‘animals’ instead of actually getting to the root of the issue and helping to solve it.”

-Shahim McMoran, 20, Towson University

“I think a lot of cities are on the brink of a breaking point… I wish [people] would care more about the root issues that are going on.”

-Reesa Renee, 27

“I hope that, beyond police brutality, we can begin to have conversations about racial inequality as a whole. Because that’s what this all comes down to. It’s embedded in every inch of American society.”

-MacKya Purnell, 20, Towson University

“We need answers. I think Baltimore City is just really, really angry from all of the years of oppression. Yesterday they had a riot. Rocks got thrown. Police got hurt. It’s kinda like, what do you expect from a city that doesn’t have anything?”

-Robert, 22

Wide Angle Youth Media is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides Baltimore youth with media education to tell their own stories and become engaged with their communities.