Is Boston racist?!?!?!? (low income, renting, colleges)

[gravity]

It is very unfortunate for any race to encounter any form of racism. I believe that racism or some form prejudice will exist on a human to human level of some sort of degree. However, it is also the institutionalized racism that exist in Boston that is more sad. I'd rather in your face racism than hidden.

But America seems to be making great strides in eradicating. I mean it only 30 years ago that schools were integrated. So the country is still young and healing in general.

All this to say that Boston being racism or not should not stop anyone from going to Boston and conquering it.

[Donnybrook]

How can people say that Boston is not racist?

Every major city in America is racist to a certain degree. Boston just seems like it is more racist because it is more condensed than NYC or L.A.

In the past it used to be primarily a hate-fest between the Irish, Italians, and blacks. Now, however, there has been a huge surge in Brazilian, Dominican, El Salvadorian, and Indian immigrants, so they have become the targets of most racist tension.

The more affluent areas are more removed from this, because the more recent immigrants cannot afford to live in places like Beacon Hill. So, they end up living in places like Everett, Medford, Chelsea, Somerville (a/k/a "Slum"erville), and certain parts of Cambridge.

This places them on the same streets as blue-collar Irish and Italian Americans who not only dislike seeing "those" people move into their neighborhood, they flat out hate it.

I have heard comments such as, "When my father moved here from italy he went to a English class every night from 6-8 just so he could learn English and these Brazilians expect everybody to speak freakin' Portuguese."

Every immigrant population faces the same type of racism. It happened to the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Russians....the Latinos and Indians are just the new kids on the block.

While Boston is definitely racist, so is NYC, Chicago, L.A., Atlanta, Philly, New Orleans, hell every city harbors racism. Boston is no more or less racist than anywhere else.

[oldie]

Boston's reputation for racism was perpetuated in large part by the busing crisis in the early '70s. Many can recall the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the white protester brandishing an American flag at an African-American man and, later on, Dee Brown of the Celtics being harassed by cops in Wellesley (where he lived). I think that people take incidents such as these and use them to paint Boston with a broad brush as "racist" (by the way, cities aren't racist, individuals are).
What Boston is- as is much of New England- is provincial. Many residents have been entrenched here for generations, and are slow to warm up to outsiders in general. It doesn't make us bad people. I recall a professor of mine from college who moved to Worcester from Cincinnati. He mentioned that he had lived on the same street in Worcester for close to 10 years, and they still referred to him as the "new guy." I lived in Tucson for a year after college, and I was struck (or, being a New Englander, actually annoyed) by how friendly people were there. I came to understand that it was in large part because many people aren't actually from there. They were more accepting of those from different backgrounds, etc.
While Boston does have its share of regrettable racial incidents in the past (find me a city that doesn't), the truth is that the label "racist" was always a misnomer.

[aries4118]

I've been reading this thread...and I have many thoughts and questions. I may be moving to the Boston area in early August (the social "feel" will be a determining factor).

I'm just curious...

How is "interracial dating" in Boston? Is there much dating (even marrying) between the races? How does interracial dating play out in the gay scene?

[robertpolyglot]

I'd worry more about the price/quality relationship in housing up there right now.

[Stockholmaren]

Originally Posted by robertpolyglot

I'd worry more about the price/quality relationship in housing up there right now.

But prices are currently going down for most of the area? I guess if you recently bought a home here you would be worried, but if you're in the market to buy, times are getting good.

[Bostonian08]

I'm a 40 yr old white Irish male who lives on the border of the South End and Roxbury with my wife & son. My son goes to a spanish bilingual immersion school. He's in the 3rd grade and doing well. His teachers throughout his career there are and have been sweet white and hispanic ladies. His best friends are from a interracial couple. Our condo has 60 units, we are the only non-hispanic caucasian family in the condo development. Behind us are rich white college students attending NEU. In front of us are the Lenox Street apts. Today I went and got my hair cut at the Cutting Edge, a Barber Shop on Mass Ave where about 6 African-Amer. & 1 hispanic barbers cut hair better than anybody Newbury St and for much less. They're a cool bunch of guys, but you have to get over the GhettoSpeak when you go there because they ain't changing their tune for nobody. I'm afraid to take my son there cuz I don't want him to hear the N word and other expletives. When I picked him up from school today walking back, two little lost does asked me where Hammond St was. I pointed it out to them, and thought to myself "what the hell do you want on Hammond St'? Well, I guess college kids live right i the projects too these days. That or they are buying pot. Ghetto boyz love to sell pot to college students. Not long ago I was sitting in the Pru outside the Starbucks when a very attractive African-Amer. lady sat down at the table next to me and made friendly conversation. Obviously she was from out of town. You can always recognize someone from out of town because they are the only ones who will talk to you in public places, on the T, or the like. Except of course to hear the story about my car broke down and I need 12 dollars to get back to Baltimore. Anyways, she said she was from PA, and she was raving about how "upscale" Boston is. She had been staying with friends in Woburn, a distant burb. I was in love immediately. She was beautiful and sophisticated, but was told stay away from JP because it was too dangerous! JP?! I said your friends in Woburn ought to get out of their bunker once in a while and take a look around. Jp is not only NOT dangerous, it's sweet - and even pricey now. I told her look, if you want to live in Boston, come live *IN* Boston. Find a tiny studio in the Fens, JP, or SE for $900/mth, start out low working at the hospitals or the universities, make connections, and soon you'll move up. There's plenty of money here, you just have to get here, learn the ropes, then you'll figure it out. She was apprehensive, I said Honey, Boston Society will just LOVE you. You're beautiful, intelligent, articulate, - a perfect fit and oddly, JP would be perfect for you. Oddly I discovered she was unsettled by mention of the Gay community in Boston. I told her, just like any other prejudice, if you spend some time here, you will learn that all the hate and misconceptions about the Gay community are every bit as false as others. So I wished here well and went on my way. Safe! Ha! I've lived in this town for 15 years and walked the streets at all hours of the night and never had so much as a bad word used against me. Well except for drunk college girls and redneck cruising the town calling me a ******. I just think hey B*tch, just cuz I don't get biological with every drunk ho stumbling down Boylston St doesn't mean I'm gay. Or go back to New Hampshire rednecks. If there's one thing dangerous about this town it's the drivers - mostly the outta towners rushing to work in the AM. You can't imagine how many times I see people just blow red lights around here. I've seen three cars in a row blow the lights, it's my worst fear. Forget about gangs and drugs. I worry about the ignorant white guy from Billerica passing in the right hand lane at 40 mph while my wife and son are trying to cross Tremont St! I'm never so happy to see a boom boom car as at 830am. Sure, I get tired of listening to F*ck N*gga F*ck N*gga... blasting down the street at 1am, but at least I know the Ghetto Boyz respect pedestrians because they have little cousins trying to make their way to school in the AM. They know the South End is a neighborhood, not a freakin expressway to the Financial District. So I kinda have to gak when people call Boston segregated. Sure, Back Bay and Fenway look like Midtown, But Dot, the south End, Hyde Park, hell even Southie are all quite diverse. MLK, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, DuBois, Farrakan all lived right here. Back Bay is the Midtown of Boston, but the rest of Boston is like the borroughs. Anyways, that's my little mosaic of life in Lower Roxbury. I came here to defy conventional wisdom that people of different races can't live together, and 15 years later I still love and hate Boston, but that has nothing to do with race. We can and DO all get along. Like any other place, most crime is about personal vendettas or impersonal petty theft. 40 years ago a judge in Wellesley ordered the tribes of Boston to integrate, but built a legal fence around the city so his poofy little limousine liberal community would not have to bear the social consequences of life on Common Ground, so yeah, there was consequence. Ignorant people of any race will act ignorant, at least in Boston it's buffered by the conventional belief that to make a spectacle of one's self would be Improper. But MLK did say Boston was one of his favorite cities, his second in fact. And it is also the home of Garrison, Sumner, Philips, and Stowe. You should know who they are.

Go here to see the beautiful neighbor where I run with Roxanne, the cutest Beagle in Bostonia.

Stroll Around Boston 10-9-06 - a photoset on Flickr

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by adambos

12 pages deep, but I thought I'd chime in on this one. I live right in the city andfeel qualified to speak on this as someone who has lived in a ton of areas. Boston is definitly segregated, without a doubt. People stick to their areas. I dont think this is bad however, as people tend to gravitate towards those similar to them. All in all, Boston is very european and international. it is very educated, and also extraordinarily liberal. People from all over the world live here.

I saw that in racially mixed neighborhoods like Dorchester and Hyde Park, they have their predominantly white and black areas. For instance I saw the 02124 zip code area of Dorchester is predominantly black, don't know what the name of that section of Dorchester is though.

[vivabigpapi]

I don't think Boston's more racist than the southern cities. For instance in New Orleans my Mom had a cab driver that was calling blacks, ******s, etc.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by oldie

Boston's reputation for racism was perpetuated in large part by the busing crisis in the early '70s. Many can recall the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the white protester brandishing an American flag at an African-American man and, later on, Dee Brown of the Celtics being harassed by cops in Wellesley (where he lived). I think that people take incidents such as these and use them to paint Boston with a broad brush as "racist" (by the way, cities aren't racist, individuals are).
What Boston is- as is much of New England- is provincial. Many residents have been entrenched here for generations, and are slow to warm up to outsiders in general. It doesn't make us bad people. I recall a professor of mine from college who moved to Worcester from Cincinnati. He mentioned that he had lived on the same street in Worcester for close to 10 years, and they still referred to him as the "new guy." I lived in Tucson for a year after college, and I was struck (or, being a New Englander, actually annoyed) by how friendly people were there. I came to understand that it was in large part because many people aren't actually from there. They were more accepting of those from different backgrounds, etc.
While Boston does have its share of regrettable racial incidents in the past (find me a city that doesn't), the truth is that the label "racist" was always a misnomer.

If they're using that as a basis to say Boston's racist, then I guess LA's racist too, look at what happened to Rodney King.