Flip the Script on Flash Mobs

Stop, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down.

"It's frightening to see these flash mobs . . . they come in swarms like bees," Warrensville Heights Councilwoman Ruby Wilson was quoted in a Plain Dealer article as saying.

I've read the articles chronicling the flash mob phenomenon in Cleveland's inner-ring, and raised my eyebrows at some of the quotations. My initial conclusion: We as a community are afraid to see large groups of black teens assembled in public places when we don't expect it AND we want them to leave when we say so. We feel so strongly about this that we are willing to detain individual teens for being out in public after 6pm.

I took a brief glance at the American Community Survey and I believe it should be perfectly normal to see large groups of black teens assembled here in Cleveland. Almost 30% of the population is under 18 years of age and 52% of the population is African American.

What if, instead of thinking of flash mobs as a problem; we envision their potential. What if we were pleased that groups of black teenagers have the organizational skills and connectedness to assemble in large groups at a moment's notice. This is a demographic that is historically technologically disadvantaged, disempowered and disenfranchised.

Perhaps they don't know what to do with themselves when assembled, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. The right to assemble is in the Bill of Rights. The ability to assemble equates to power. The teens know it and so does everyone else. We should be encouraging these teens to exercise their power, to feel part of something larger than themselves, to connect with others in the community.

Maybe the flash mobs are appealing to teens because they know they are inspiring fear and they know that is not fair. Instead of squashing the flash mobs, maybe we should be putting energy toward guiding teens to use this skill for good. For example, teens in Chicago protested the closing of a hospital's trauma center, and teens in Barington, Illinois assembed to draw attention to their schools' budget cuts. I see civic potential in the flash mob.