Reframing Anacostia: Challenging Racist Narratives of Crime and Community
First posted on August 18, 2025.
For years, many of us have worked to educate and remind people that Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast DC — not a stand-in for everything east of the river, and certainly not shorthand for “dangerous.” That lazy narrative is part of a long history of equating Black communities with crime, fueling stigma and disinvestment while ignoring the truth: Anacostia is rich with culture, history, and community.
And yet, news reports and social media posts from people who haven’t stepped a pinky toe in Anacostia continue to paint themselves as experts, repeating that police “should be there” because it’s supposedly the “wild wild west of lawlessness.” They’ll amplify images of police cars with flashing sirens racing down the block at night, but leave out the reality: Anacostia is home to the Anacostia Arts Center, Honfleur Gallery, the GoGo Museum & Café, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, and countless Black-owned shops, restaurants, and cultural hubs. The failure to acknowledge that vibrancy isn’t just ignorance; it borders on racist, if not outright so.
On top of that, there are regular events in Anacostia — inside its destination spaces, in its restaurants, and right on its streets and open spaces. You only have to educate yourself to them. As someone who is part of, and contributes to, many of the marketing and outreach platforms focused on Anacostia, I can say with certainty: they are there.
Photo courtesy of the Anacostia Business Improvement District & Art To GoGo
I am very proud of the efforts made by myself, the community, and by Congress Heights on the Rise, along with concerned citizens, organizations, and responsible reporters (often local), in demanding more from the media when it comes to how they frame news articles and TV segments about Historic Anacostia in particular. It was a long campaign, literally, and every time I encounter diverse, thoughtful, and positive coverage of Anacostia and neighborhoods east of the river, I feel like strides have been made. Of course, there’s always more to do.
Is there crime in Anacostia? Sure. But show me a place that isn’t touched by crime. Being one-dimensional in storytelling, highlighting only arrests and flashing lights without even addressing the reasons behind the crime, is part of the problem. Decades of policy decisions that concentrated poverty and services east of the river, often clustering them right into Anacostia’s commercial corridors, are rarely discussed in the same breath. Nor are the ongoing political and leadership challenges this community continues to face.
Am I concerned about crime? Of course. I cover that daily. But let’s be clear: crime is not just east of the river, not just in Black neighborhoods — it is part of life across this city, across this country, and most pointedly, at this very moment, inside the White House. So let’s not get it twisted.
I live in NoMa and have seen my fair share of crime. In fact, during my years living west of the river, I often witnessed and experienced more crime than I have while living east of the river. My car was stolen twice, both times from parking garages west of the river. But somehow, those stories don’t get spun into sweeping narratives about “lawlessness.”
Photo courtesy of NewsWeek. Photo credit: MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP
And let’s not forget Trump unilaterally firing tens of thousands of federal workers in the most callous and disrespectful of ways, marching them out similar to a “perp walk” without a shred of concern for how they will feed their families, keep their homes, or access healthcare without insurance. These workers now face uncertainty and fear at a time when at least half of our political system is focused solely on their own personal gains, despite many being unqualified for their roles, while bowing and scraping to a man who, to put it kindly, suffers from some form of major personality disorder. I fail to see the Christian concern that these hypocrites have swaddled themselves in. But I digress.
And the latest occupation is just that: an occupation. And it should be terrifying. Not only does it set the stage — and it is — for further authoritarian behavior, but it also normalizes the possibility that anyone can be snatched off the street, by anyone, without as much as disclosing what agency they are from or even whether the person doing the snatching is law enforcement at all. I am just waiting for the day when a rapist, kidnapper, or serial killer takes advantage of this dangerous practice.
Now, we’re watching Trump, himself a convicted felon, take yet another step toward full-blown authoritarianism under the guise of “law and order.” He claims to be concerned about the “welfare of others,” all while letting humanitarian supplies rot and families starve. The hypocrisy could not be more blatant.
We can’t allow this false framing to go unchallenged. Anacostia ≠ dangerous. Black communities ≠ dangerous. What is dangerous is using fear as a political weapon, criminalizing Black neighborhoods, and weaponizing “safety” while denying people basic dignity and care.
- The Advoc8te