A lot of people are baffled at his political invincibility. Why the hell do they keep electing a (former?) crackhead? I think that it all boils down to electing someone whom you feel represents you. I think you would have to grow up poor and Black in this city to really understand where some of these people are coming from…even if you still wouldn't agree.
Long before he became Mayor, Marion Barry was the people's champion. DC didn't have autonomy and a lot of Black people were just relegated to menial tasks. Some felt like an afterthought in Congress' mind. Enter: Marion Barry--a trash talking guy in a dashiki who left the field of organic chemistry to march with Dr. King in the civil rights movement. His ferocity, sincerity and volition endeared him to the city's downtrodden and disenfranchised Black denizens.
He started an organization called Pride Inc that gave a lot of people jobs and he led marches around town. He became something of a folk hero. Then he became mayor. The first thing he did was start appointing a lot of Black people to high ranking positions. The city government and the police department slowly started shifting to a more African American presence. It was something of a psychological motivator to see people who look like you running your city. "I can do that!" Now I'm not gonna lie and say they all did good jobs, but it did help change people's perception of what avenues were open to them. Then he started screwing up with women, inappropriate behavior and drugs. Then DC became a cesspool of drugs and violence. Then he got caught smoking crack. I have no doubt that his being on drugs is part of the reason things got so bad here, but still people vote for him. Why?
I think that it has a lot to do with economic race relations in this city. Unlike places like NY and Philly where you see poor people of all races huddled together in the hood, DC never really seemed to have a poor White population. The racial lines ran parallel to the income lines and that has always been a source of tension. When I was a kid, everything was relegated to Black/White. We couldn't afford to go eat in Georgetown or anywhere near the zoo or even downtown. We couldn't afford to go to the movie theaters west of Rock Creek Park. Quite frankly, we just stayed away from that side of town altogether. Those places were "for White people."
There were a lot of people who felt that side of town to be closed off to them. It was an economic issue, but on the surface it looked like a racial one and people took it that way. As soon as Marion Barry left office and Tony Williams took over, the economic development in this city took off. New businesses came to town, they constructed a baseball stadium and M St SW started looking less like a giant project complex and more like a place you could feel safe at night. The reoccurring phrase from everyone I grew up with: "They fixing that shit up for White people."
The city couldn't stay poor forever. No one in their right mind enjoyed being the murder capital, but at the same time there was legitimate concern that now that the city was starting to get better, we (lower income Blacks) were getting pushed out. Low income housing projects were razed fairly quickly. I was in college when it happened, but it seemed like in between every Spring, Summer and Fall break I'd come home to see another childhood hotspot torn down. My new adult/mature/accounting-major mind understood that it needed to happen.
It wasn't a good thing that my neighborhood convenience store was really a liquor store where the crackheads used to beg me for money and shoot up in the alley. But despite my intelligence, nostalgia tugs on your heart strings just a bit when you see your childhood home where most of these "mentalstorage" stories took place completely demolished with nothing remotely familiar standing nearby. The store I used to go to for 25 cent candy and 50 cent freeze pops is now a three unit condominium and the new tenants (all White) look at me with trepidation whenever I walk by.
With gentrification comes a raise in property value which in turn raises property taxes and economic development typically means someone is getting displaced. With so much of the city headed that direction, Southeast DC seems like the last frontier. With talk of a waterfront, trolley cars and ferries going from Southeast to Alexandria and the National's Stadium, it just doesn't sound like low income African Americans are the target demographic for such changes. When you consider all of the new developments sprouting up in Southeast, particularly on those really hilly parts where you have clear views of the river, the air force base and the Monument, it's hard to imagine those properties remaining "affordable living dwellings" for very long.
So I think that's where Marion Barry comes in. There's an implicit feeling that even though he can't stop change from rolling on through, he'll remain a resounding voice for those who aren't too keen on it. He lives there, he walks like 'em, talks like 'em and despite his demons, he's the devil they know.
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"Niggas watchin the throne, very happy to be you. Power to the people! When you see me, see you! And I'm from the murder capital..."[/caption]
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