Residents on a mission to share what’s GOOD in Englewood
Rashanah Baldwin is sick and tired of her neighborhood being negatively portrayed by media. True, Englewood isn’t home to the Cleavers, but there’s so much more to the Chicago community than violence, drugs and murder.
So she and other residents are taking to social media to reshape the community’s image, one tweet at a time.
Using the hashtag #goodinenglewood, Rashanah Baldwin, 30, one of RAGE’s co-founders, tweets and Instagrams on everything from karaoke night at a local lounge to the tomato basil soup at Kusanya Cafe. She has Instagrammed nearly 1,300 images of Englewood. […]
It’s not an easy pitch. Englewood is ranked sixth (along with three other neighborhoods) among Chicago’s 77 community areas for violent crime, according to a Tribune analysis of Chicago police crime statistics. In an area of 3 square miles, there are 4,549 vacant lots. Between 2000 and 2010, Englewood lost 20,000 residents, one-quarter of its population.
Ay-sha Butler, president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, says the group wants to shift the image of Englewood held by residents themselves. “We hope our presence will give you a different result when you do a Google search for Englewood,” she said.
Good work R.A.G.E.
Thoughts on the media’s narrative of black neighborhoods?
Is it up to us to dictate how we’re portrayed in the media?
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