In 2020, while running for Baltimore City Council President, I had an encounter that still sticks with me to this day. While door-knocking, I approached a caucasian woman outside her home to share my platform. Although this particular house wasn’t on my walk list, I believe in speaking with everyone. She listened politely—until I mentioned I was a Republican. Then she snapped! She told me I didn’t understand what it means to be Black in America or the challenges Black people face.
“You don’t understand what it means to be Black in America…” ~Liberal White Woman
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! Here was a white woman, in a majority-Black city, telling me—a Black man married to a Black woman, raising Black children, born and raised of Black parents—what it meant to live my own experience.
This interaction wasn’t just an isolated moment of bias. It was a reflection of a deeper truth about Baltimore: despite its majority-Black population and Black leadership, the city is controlled by white progressive liberals whose policies often disregard the needs of Black communities. Baltimore has a progressive problem, and it’s time we start calling it out.
Jovani Patterson interview on WYPR Midday w/ Tom Hall (condensed)
Baltimore is led by Black officials at nearly every level—our mayor, city council, and other elected positions. Yet the policies being pushed forward cater more to the preferences of white progressive liberals than to the basic needs of Black residents.
In the city’s most disenfranchised neighborhoods—those in the Black Butterfly—residents are pleading for better education, safer streets, affordable water bills, and job opportunities. These are reasonable, achievable demands. But what do they get instead? Bike lanes, bans on leaf blowers, and progressive policies that feel completely detached from their reality.
Even worse, when these communities dare to push back—by voting for more practical candidates or sitting out elections in frustration—they’re accused of being ignorant or undemocratic. This is gaslighting, plain and simple. And it raises a necessary question: who is Baltimore’s government really serving?
The 2024 primary election revealed this disconnect in stark terms. Voter turnout in Baltimore’s Black Butterfly was dismally low—a sign that many residents feel unheard and disillusioned. But of those who did vote, many supported candidates with common-sense platforms focused on basic needs.
Yet, the progressive candidate—backed overwhelmingly by white liberal voters—won the race. This wasn’t an anomaly; it’s a pattern. Time and again, the preferences of white progressives take precedence over the needs of Black communities, even in a city where Black residents make up the majority.
A similar dynamic played out during the debate over Question H, the ballot initiative to reduce the size of Baltimore’s City Council. Critics framed the measure as a scheme funded by a wealthy outsider, David Smith. But what those critics won’t admit is that Question H received significant support from Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods—the same neighborhoods that the political elite claim to represent.
These residents weren’t fooled by some “rich man’s agenda.” They supported Question H because they saw it as a way to demand accountability and redirect resources to the issues that matter most to them: education, safety, and economic opportunity. Ironically, the so-called outsider and I were more in tune with the needs of Baltimore’s disenfranchised than the progressives were.
Baltimore’s progressive problem is a bitter irony: white liberals, shielded by privilege, dictate policies that leave Black communities to bear the brunt of the city’s systemic failures. The city parades a “new Black face,” where Black politicians too often become tools for advancing white liberal agendas. Malcolm X’s warning about white liberals exploiting Black struggles for their own gain resounds louder than ever in Baltimore, a city weighed down by hollow promises of progress.
The results are clear. Progressive priorities like bike lanes and symbolic legislation get fast-tracked, while real issues like crime, failing schools, and economic inequity are left to fester. Black residents are told what’s good for them rather than being listened to. And when they don’t comply, they’re dismissed as obstacles to progress.
The progressive problem isn’t just about misaligned priorities—it’s about power. Who holds it, who benefits from it, and who is left behind? Until we address these questions, Baltimore will remain stuck in a cycle where the most vulnerable are silenced and solutions that truly serve the people are pushed aside.
