Is Boston racist?!?!?!? (Brockton, Fitchburg, Marshfield: middle school, place to live, bus)

[CityGirl52]

Proud American:

People didn't put their kids in private schools during the era of Busing in Boston. The majority of them were already IN private schools to begin with. What happened during that period was that a couple of the neighborhood private grammar schools closed, the parents like mine got their letters in the mail as to where there child/children would be attending school. So since the private schools in the town closed up, they were forced to send their kids that were IN private schools already since the 1st grade to other towns surrounding Boston to their private schools, such as St. Clemons in Somerville, then the various parochial high schools that they had to take tests for to get in to any way IF they continued with their private school educations and the majority of us did continue with private schooling, that was a way of life for quite a lot of people and it still is to this day in the Boston area as well as in New England towns and cities throughout it.

A lot of the families that lived in the projects at the time, in Charlestown of course resented the hell out of the people that lived in the town that could afford to send their kids to private schools, so of course it was said that they were sending their kids to the private schools so they wouldn't have to put them on the buses. Maybe, may not, but I can vouch and say that several hundred were already in private schools to begin with. That was a big, huge issue at the time as well between the various socio-economic backgrounds of all the families in the town, as I'm sure it was like that in other neighborhoods as well around the City. SO in the end when it came right down to it? With the busing issue back then? It was the poor whites and the poor blacks that ended up actually getting bused to various parts of the city for their educations, IF you want to call it an education!

[renault]

Originally Posted by tiny63275

I now live in DC, and have yet to see the same kind of angry hate-spewing ethnic cults or be called a “ni—er” from a window by a cowardly taunter..

DC is also very racist I often get called "whitey" by cowardly taunters.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by eevee

see what I mean!!! this city will NEVER live down these busing riots!!! nevermind the fact that many large cities have had similar race issues. this city will forever be seen as racist b/c people seem incapable of believing Boston has changed since those riots. I swear 50 years from now people will still be saying Boston is racist because of these busing riots. I would like to think that as a city we have healed and moved on, seems like it's mostly outsiders that haven't really done so. AFAIK, in my lifetime, there has never been a race riot.

and, AFAIK, people send their kids to private schools b/c Boston Public schools, w/ the exception of the exam and some magnet/charter schools, all suck!! maybe there are some exceptions, but I can't think of a single decent BPS that isn't a charter school. there are parents who lie and swear they live in Boston just so their kids could have a shot at one of the exam schools, and these schools are all fairly diverse. if people were so afraid of letting their precious kids interact w/ kids of other races, they'd forgo these schools all together and stick them in a private school somewhere (heck, Boston Latin Academy is in Roxbury and there are white kids that go to that school, that are "mixing" w/ nonwhite kids at school and in the neighborhood!). it's stupid to think whites are putting their kids in private schools just to avoid other races (especially since private schools admit everyone so it's likely to have kids of other races as well. these make believe bigoted parents would be better off living in a mostly white, super-inclusive town and sending the kids to a public school that will only take town residents)

So you're saying Boston once had racial problems, but it doesn't now? If you are saying that, I agree with you.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by eevee

well, our experiences in Boston have obviously differed. like I said in my previous posts, I've very rarely experienced any sort of racism. yeah, I got a few slurs thrown out to me but mostly by drunkards. I do know however that some blacks are just more of a target than others. don't take this the wrong way (I mean no offense, I don't even know you!), but some blacks make themselves targets by the way they act and portray themselves. they hype up negative stereotypes by acting "ghetto" (ie, speaking slang, constant swearing, saying the N word every 10 seconds, etc) and this makes them targets for racists. AFAIK, I've never acted "ghetto" (indeed, I've been called an "Oreo" more than a few times in my lifetime because I spoke proper English, liked to read, preferred some rock bands over rappers, and went to a good school) so maybe I've made myself less of a target.

I'm not saying racism doesn't exist in Boston (again, I said in my previous post that racism is a problem anywhere in the world multiple races reside), but it's no where near has bad as in some parts of the country. a black man in Boston is FAR more likely to get killed by another black man in a gang related crime than by a white man in a racially motivated crime (that doesn't mean, racially motivated crimes don't happen; the Pring-Wilson case did bring this issue to light a few years ago). I think that due to the whole busing riots issue, Boston picked up this reputation as being extremely racist. do a search on this forum and see how often this question pops up here. I'd like to think Boston has shed this reputation, but when questions like this keep popping up, I wonder if it ever will

New Orleans and Atlanta seem much more racist than Boston.

[ceili723]

Boston is a very racist city, and yes, I agree that the Irish-American-American-American-American (i.e. here for 100+ years and have probably never visited Ireland) are the worst offenders. In my experience, this is 95% a male thing, the women tend to be more progressive, except for that type of woman who parrots everything her guys do.

In my experience, it's a very open racism too, in that when families or neighborhoods gather together, there is no hesitation in using ethnic slurs, stereotypes, etc. And it's far from being confined to black-white issues.... there's a lot of talk about the Jews and the Portugese and the gays and the Hispanics too. The good news is that if you're fat or handicapped or retarded or a priest who has "issues", they will defend you.

Love Boston, there's a lot of good people, even the ones who haven't seen the light beyond their ignorance yet. Have found racial relationships to be much more progressive in the South, believe it or not.

[vivabigpapi]

I don't believe that Boston is racist. Other people who live in Boston feel the same way I do.

[vivabigpapi]

[quote=vivabigpapi;4331306]I don't believe that Boston is racist. Other people who live in Boston feel the same way I do.

Whether Bostonians are racist or not, one thing every race, ethnicity, gender, and orientation in Boston have in common is there love for the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins (the Bruins may just be a white thing though, since most of hockey's fan base is white).

[wodasha]

Boston is probably one of the most racist cities in the whole country. Even though there is a black governor. The whites and the other non-blacks get along well they (the whites) support their businesses (non-blacks). Name me one black owned small business or restaurant is supported mostly by non-blacks in the state of MA virtually none. People of other ethnicity's own businesses in the black neighborhoods while they (the blacks) own nothing.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by ceili723

Boston is a very racist city, and yes, I agree that the Irish-American-American-American-American (i.e. here for 100+ years and have probably never visited Ireland) are the worst offenders. In my experience, this is 95% a male thing, the women tend to be more progressive, except for that type of woman who parrots everything her guys do.

In my experience, it's a very open racism too, in that when families or neighborhoods gather together, there is no hesitation in using ethnic slurs, stereotypes, etc. And it's far from being confined to black-white issues.... there's a lot of talk about the Jews and the Portugese and the gays and the Hispanics too. The good news is that if you're fat or handicapped or retarded or a priest who has "issues", they will defend you.

Love Boston, there's a lot of good people, even the ones who haven't seen the light beyond their ignorance yet. Have found racial relationships to be much more progressive in the South, believe it or not.

I have heard about gays getting abused in Boston from other reliable sources, and not just in here. For instance, in the Savin Hill section of Dorchester a few months ago, some gay guy got murdered. The police think it was a hate crime, and that he got murdered for the sole purpose of being gay. I also read that ever since gay marriage has been allowed, gays in Boston are suffering the worst abuse from homophobes they've ever suffered.

The other stuff about the whites in Boston being racist towards blacks, hispanics and Jews I've only heard in here.

[TheJickler]

Originally Posted by CityGirl52

Did the kids in the North End of Boston get subjected to this busing rule by the federal government? Course not, that would never happen in a million and one years. It was only between the Irish and the Blacks and that's it, end of discussion with that scenario. Thank God the City of Boston and every one in it moved on from those horrible days, thank God because it was quite a sad time living there for ALL of us.

Recently, I worked with a wonderful black woman in the Methuen area of Massachusetts and one day, we got to talking about Boston and those days. She was right on one of those buses heading in to Southie as a teen. She quit school and didn't get her HS degree until years later. My heart ached for her because of what she had to tell me. I will never ever forget her stories about it all for as long as I live, EVER. I'm not going to repeat them here because it's not necessary, it's heartbreaking. Let's put it this way; we saw eye to eye, trust me! We both totally agreed that the City of Boston moved on. A lot of people from both sides of the busing "coin" moved away from it all and rightly so, the kids grew up and have bitter memories of it all. Oh and of course the property went up up up in value and gentrification flew through the whole City even quicker than it did before busing happened. That is one thing that we absolutely 100% agreed on and we both felt that that was the bottom line with this issue. NO doubt in our minds about it either. The real estate! Check it out, will you? Go in to sights like Boston.com or google Boston Real Estate and pull up all the beautiful magnificient "lofts", townhouses & condos and see for yourself. It's nauseating how much they're worth now!

There's a wonderful book out about the subject of busing that won the Pulitzer Prize. It's written by J. Anthony Lukas, who wrote for the Boston Globe. It's quite a book, it's the book that every one in the town loved to hate, even though they ended up buying it and it's on their bookshelves to this very day! I remember this wonderful author walking through the neighborhood too with some of the people in this book discussing it all!
I really think that every one all over the country & the world should get it out of their libraries or look for it and buy this phenomenal book. You won't be able to put it down. It's a fantastic account (right on the dime about it too!) of what happened & what it was like during those turbulent years in the City of Boston. Here's some info on it...

Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American
Families by J. Anthony Lukas

Amazon.com
The climax of this humane account of 10 years in Boston that began with news of Martin Luther King's assassination, is a watershed moment in the city's modern history--the 1974 racist riots that followed the court-ordered busing of kids to integrate the schools. To bring understanding to that moment, Lukas, a former New York Times journalist, focuses on two working-class families, headed by an Irish-American widow and an African-American mother, and on the middle-class family of a white liberal couple. Lukas goes beyond stereotypes, carefully grounding each perspective in its historical roots, whether in the antebellum South, or famine-era Ireland. In the background is the cast of public figures--including Judge Garrity, Mayor White, and Cardinal Cushing--with cameo roles in this disturbing history that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

From Publishers Weekly
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Book Award, this book examines school integration in Boston from the vantage points of three families one black and two white. PW stated that Common Ground is "highly readable and brings us as close as we are likely to get to the average person's experiences of urban racial tensions."

Just my two cents again...

Great post! I am reading that book right now. I read it about 10 years ago but it was so good I needed a second read. Interesting points about gentrification and property values in the city. It will be interesting to see what happens in places like Charlestown, Revere, Chelsea, etc. and if these places become truly gentrified, if they are not already.

I mean, who would have thought that people would pay tons of money to live in places in Brooklyn?