While some have said the historic and tragic flood of 2016 helped bring the community closer together after a summer of violence and division, the Rev. Raymond Jetson told the Baton Rouge Rotary Club today that the recent disaster has not brought about badly needed healing in Baton Rouge.
“Many have suggested the waters began a healing in our community,” Jetson said in a lunchtime address to the group. “Anyone who would truly believe that does so at their own peril.”
Jetson, pastor at Star Hill Church and CEO of the nonprofit organization MetroMorphosis, says the events of the summer prior to the flood—the Alton Sterling shooting, subsequent nights of protests, and ambush assassination of several law enforcement officers—brought to light divisions and deep-seated problems that have festered for years. The flood won’t make those problems go away, he said.
“The profound impact of the flood is that it will only serve to exacerbate the tensions that led to the events of the summer,” he said. “In floods, those with resources recover well. Those without don’t.”
Jetson said the Baton Rouge establishment has to do a better job of examining the root causes beneath the poverty, high incarceration rates and low outcomes that are endemic among African-American males.
“Healing will require the painful process of acknowledging that there is a problem,” Jetson said. “Otherwise, it’s like putting a Band-aid on cancer.”
The Urban Congress on African American Males that Jetson convened earlier this year and the 250 participants it brought together is an example of the kinds of solutions the community can be working on to address inner-city problems, he said. The congress outlined seven goals and has established working groups that meet regularly to help implement them.
“We want to bring a critical lens to these seven areas and act strategically to bring about change,” he said.
—Stephanie Riegel
