Why does North Minneapolis, which boasts the Twin Cities’ highest concentration of black folk, appear to have the most trash on the ground? As a newcomer to the “North Side,” I have been shocked at the garbage strewn about my ’hood. When I complained to then Fifth Ward rep and Minneapolis Council President Jackie Cherryhomes about it, she told me I have trash problems because I live too close to the Broadway commercial corridor.
If that were the case, then Kenwood and Linden Hills, both of which contain thriving commercial districts, should be choked with litter. They are not. Both neighborhoods are relatively litter-free. And, dare we say, both neighborhoods have relatively few young people of color.
I have stood in the living room of my North Minneapolis home and watched young people deliberately drop trash on the street. My next-door neighbor, reasoning that a convenient trash can might encourage people to do the right thing, placed one in his front yard. The trash can barely made a dent in the amount of trash dumped in front of our houses. In fact, my neighbor has seen people saunter up to the trash can, look into it, and then drop trash outside the can.
Most people I see dumping trash on the ground are young people of color. Mostly boys, but the girls make a sizeable contribution as well. Ironically, many of these same kids, who apparently think nothing of trashing their own turf, often take great pride in their $150 sneakers and their mega-decibel car stereo systems.
Comedian Franklin Ajaye once quipped about being at UCLA at the height of the black power movement, jumping to the front of a registration line while shouting, “Get back, Whitey!” Instead of giving him the whacking he deserved, the white students said, “They’ve been oppressed, you know. We’ve got to make allowances.” And Ajaye, fearing no consequences, kept cutting in line.
Oh, I can hear the apologists now—these are kids suffering from self-esteem issues. The system has beaten them down. They do not have effective role models. We need to gently steer them in the right direction. Blah, blah, blah. Poverty, oppression, teen pregnancy, and white racism—you pick the social ill. None of it excuses living in filth. This is one issue that black folk cannot blame on Mr. Charley. White people do not make these young people commit the ecological equivalent of defecating where they live.
A few weeks ago, after watching yet another drop-the-trash-next-to-the-trash-can episode, I could not restrain myself. Like news anchor Howard Beale in Network, I was mad as hell and I wasn’t going to take it anymore. Before I knew it, I was outside in my J.C. Penney’s robe and matching house slippers, telling the two teenaged culprits to pick up their garbage. They paused as if in shock. After about three heartbeats of silence, they picked it up, placed it in the can, and said, “No problem man, it’s cool.” I do not know what their grades are like, if they live at home with both parents, or if they have other issues. I do know this: By placing the trash in the can, their actions belied the obvious—that it was not a problem to “do the right thing.”
We as a community (and I do not mean just the darker side here) must confront these kids and hold them accountable for dumping trash. Ignoring it (and, for that matter, the trash talking) does nothing but (1) keep them from learning the crucial life lesson of personal responsibility; (2) lower property values; and (3) give the racially jaundiced more fodder to perpetuate racial stereotypes.
Yes, it will probably feel awkward to confront the trashers. And some kids will get mouthy. If however we choose to say nothing, we become accomplices in the creation of neighborhood landfills and miscreant young adults.
Clinton Collins, Jr. is a Minneapolis attorney and commentator.
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