Smart, sensitive perspectives on Baltimore current events

These are the best articles I've read so far about recent events in my adopted hometown. I prepared it for my weekly newsletter but wanted to disseminate here as well. Even if you're not local, it's worthwhile reading: these are American patterns.

• As Riots Follow Freddie Gray's Death in Baltimore, Calls for Calm Ring Hollow (theatlantic.com): "When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con."

• The long, painful and repetitive history of how Baltimore became Baltimore (washingtonpost.com): "...the outright racism that motivated many of these historic policies has eroded with time. "But we have to understand," Fullilove says, "the machine can work without the operator."

• The Nature of Poverty (nytimes.com): "The world is waiting for a thinker who can describe poverty through the lens of social psychology."

• What you really need to know about Baltimore, from a reporter who’s lived there for over 30 years - The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com): "The two worlds bump up against one another only on occasion. Maybe when a line of daredevils on dirt bikes — the storied 12 O’clock Boys — startle motorists by doing near-vertical, high-speed wheelies in city traffic, or when groups of kids brawl in the tourist zone surrounding the Inner Harbor."