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?
Sound off below!
I’m not from Chicago, I’ve only been there once. But the way Englewood is portrayed in the media is a classic example of how every black neighborhood in America is portrayed. Violence, Drugs, Crime, Murder, and Incarceration. But that’s not all that’s going on in the black community. The overwhelming majority of black people in this country are decent, hardworking, law abiding people who have the desire for the good in life. Its a few knuckleheads that are out here causing this violence. Only a small few. It’s a myth that a bunch of black boys are running around with guns shooting and killing each other. It’s only a few of them and a lot of the violence is staged. I wouldn’t be surprised if the CIA or FBI supplant shooters in these neighborhoods in order to create murder and mayhem amongst our youth. Also its a fact that illegal guns are deliberately placed in back alley ways in these neighborhoods. But everybody got choices. You can choose to work, educate yourself, and keep clear of the nonsense the neighborhood has to offer or you willingly partake in the nonsense and be faced with the consequences for doing so. Life boils down to one word: Choices.