Boston is without a doubt the worst place I have ever lived. (Randolph: limousine, taxes)
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I don't see how Boston is unique in that regard. I agree that this situation is present in most places. In fact, I've never really seen a place where it isn't.
Boston’s mainstream culture is based in monochromatic whiteness/Irishness. The city doesn’t see itself or project itself as having substantial diversity. More so than most other major cities. In addition to that white Bostonians know literally nothing about Black Boston culture, our nodes of travel and our history in the region/social ties to other regions. More so than other places I’ve lived white Bostonians are oblivious to the noon white culture around them. That’s basically it.
Most white Bostonians don’t know how big the Caribbean carnival is. The black history/connection we have in oak bluffs, the Boston Six, the Kite Festival, Roxbury Homecoming /Juneteenth, many black restaurants/bars, New Edition and other black celebrities form here aren’t written about and most people don’t know why they are although they are numerous, Many white people have never been to Mattapan or no don’t even know it’s a part of Boston.
Boston’s not all that segregated anymore it’s just the most white washed city in America probably. From an identity standpoint. It’s just not representative or inclusive at all.
Boston area has the whitest upper management I’ve ever seen, despite lower and middle management and the grunts doing the real work being fairly diverse. It’s definitely an insiders club at the top level. Other places are similar but I found it more blatant in Boston.
Boston area has the whitest upper management I’ve ever seen, despite lower and middle management and the grunts doing the real work being fairly diverse. It’s definitely an insiders club at the top level. Other places are similar but I found it more blatant in Boston.
Is this a reflection of overall income gaps in the region?
These are interesting numbers. The top two by city proper are places that are usually considered economic and cultural powerhouses of the black community. Perhaps the metro numbers are more important?
Boston seems to do fairly bad in both categories. I wonder to what extent the upper management demographics are a reflection of the sort of industries in the city. Is that even a factor?
It seems possible that a region with many established, privately owned companies or certain old money industries like private banking would take longer to diversify than young industries due to history.
However this hypothesis is turned on its head by the presence of SF so high on the inequality list. It also kind of undermines SF's brand as the most progressive area of the country.
The Bridgeport and Prov numbers are telling aswell at the overall situation in the region.
Besides the income differences there is a cultural chasm between upper class and lower class Boston.
There is such a clear pecking order here and it's not limited to the city proper by any means. It's not exactly race based but it's adjacent to it. It's also extremely almost comically detailed and widespread, as if everyone in the MSA was a data geek like us and memorized the relative income and crime statistics for every city and town. Any town 'better' than yours is full of sheltered snobby wimps and any town 'worse' than yours is a cesspool of poverty and crime.
This extends to the interpersonal and travel networks within the larger region. Different areas are linked more strongly by class than by physical proximity. Someone in Lowell may likely have more connections to people in Revere than they do to people in Lexington, even though Lexington is only half the distance away.
The culture is also somewhat 'closed' which could play a part in the 'insiders club' feel. In some ways almost every social circle is an insiders club in Boston. People make friends here in the 6th grade and don't see a need to make new ones. Where you grew up and who you grew up with means a lot to people.
Is this a reflection of overall income gaps in the region?
These are interesting numbers. The top two by city proper are places that are usually considered economic and cultural powerhouses of the black community. Perhaps the metro numbers are more important?
Boston seems to do fairly bad in both categories. I wonder to what extent the upper management demographics are a reflection of the sort of industries in the city. Is that even a factor?
It seems possible that a region with many established, privately owned companies or certain old money industries like private banking would take longer to diversify than young industries due to history.
However this hypothesis is turned on its head by the presence of SF so high on the inequality list. It also kind of undermines SF's brand as the most progressive area of the country.
The Bridgeport and Prov numbers are telling aswell at the overall situation in the region.
Besides the income differences there is a cultural chasm between upper class and lower class Boston.
There is such a clear pecking order here and it's not limited to the city proper by any means. It's not exactly race based but it's adjacent to it. It's also extremely almost comically detailed and widespread, as if everyone in the MSA was a data geek like us and memorized the relative income and crime statistics for every city and town. Any town 'better' than yours is full of sheltered snobby wimps and any town 'worse' than yours is a cesspool of poverty and crime.
This extends to the interpersonal and travel networks within the larger region. Different areas are linked more strongly by class than by physical proximity. Someone in Lowell may likely have more connections to people in Revere than they do to people in Lexington, even though Lexington is only half the distance away.
The culture is also somewhat 'closed' which could play a part in the 'insiders club' feel. In some ways almost every social circle is an insiders club in Boston. People make friends here in the 6th grade and don't see a need to make new ones. Where you grew up and who you grew up with means a lot to people.
You have a few factors here. What number of those have residency requirements for municipal employees? that's 30K in boston alone. If they don't own a house but they have to stay in the area they might get locked into paying rent increases for decades. Another factor is how many houses are made in these areas? Inventory isn't going up . another is transit. How many have decent transit in and out? If you don't have transit you have to get a ride somehow and that might mean getting a car which not everyone can afford.
DC has height restrictions. Buildings build up, not down. Supposedly it was to maintain the view of landmarks. the skyline of even springfield and hartford is bigger than DC. So this means a landlord can't really build new units if the frontage is at the max. Can't build up or down....but you can make the apartments smaller and raise the rents.
SF has that and a strong historical district which prevents major renovations (usually).
Residency requirements, height restrictions, historical requirements, lack of building permits etc.
California has prop 13 which pretty much rewarded anyone that got in first.
Boston area has the whitest upper management I’ve ever seen, despite lower and middle management and the grunts doing the real work being fairly diverse. It’s definitely an insiders club at the top level. Other places are similar but I found it more blatant in Boston.
Agreed. I'm sure there cities with whiter upper management in the midwest and mountain west but they're not at all to the same level of prominence as Boston. The only cities approaching Boston in that respect (size/notoriety) would be Portland and Pittsburgh-both smaller than Boston.
Is this a reflection of overall income gaps in the region?
These are interesting numbers. The top two by city proper are places that are usually considered economic and cultural powerhouses of the black community. Perhaps the metro numbers are more important?
Boston seems to do fairly bad in both categories. I wonder to what extent the upper management demographics are a reflection of the sort of industries in the city. Is that even a factor?
It seems possible that a region with many established, privately owned companies or certain old money industries like private banking would take longer to diversify than young industries due to history.
However this hypothesis is turned on its head by the presence of SF so high on the inequality list. It also kind of undermines SF's brand as the most progressive area of the country.
The Bridgeport and Prov numbers are telling aswell at the overall situation in the region.
Besides the income differences there is a cultural chasm between upper class and lower class Boston.
There is such a clear pecking order here and it's not limited to the city proper by any means. It's not exactly race based but it's adjacent to it. It's also extremely almost comically detailed and widespread, as if everyone in the MSA was a data geek like us and memorized the relative income and crime statistics for every city and town. Any town 'better' than yours is full of sheltered snobby wimps and any town 'worse' than yours is a cesspool of poverty and crime.
This extends to the interpersonal and travel networks within the larger region. Different areas are linked more strongly by class than by physical proximity. Someone in Lowell may likely have more connections to people in Revere than they do to people in Lexington, even though Lexington is only half the distance away.
The culture is also somewhat 'closed' which could play a part in the 'insiders club' feel. In some ways almost every social circle is an insiders club in Boston. People make friends here in the 6th grade and don't see a need to make new ones. Where you grew up and who you grew up with means a lot to people.
It's the tech and finance industry. And the fact that over half of minorities in MA are immigrants or 2nd generation. Just have that much time to get established. Rhode Island is the same. Bridgeport is more so just generational poverty and segregation. Then there's the fact that NYC is gonna zap a lot of the top minority talent from CT, MA, RI.
Also, the white folks in New England are just not very culturally adaptive/aware compared to other cities I've been to which limits their social and professional networks, and thus they're hiring.
Also, the white folks in New England are just not very culturally adaptive/aware compared to other cities I've been to which limits their social and professional networks, and thus they're hiring.
Not really something I can give you examples for but whit people in New England RI and MA in particular really can only bond with you over local things. Thye just has a very one-way approach of thinking that's excessively euro/white-centric. Its very easy to pick up on (if youre black I guess) and I'd say in comparison to Maryland, New Jersey, California, Nevada, Chicago DC, and most of the south.
Definitely stems from a higher degree of segregation for a black population that isnt that large. White people in New England (less so CT) are just very clumsy at navigating interracial conversation and put themselves at the center of it 9/10 times. They tend to want to dominate the conversation. In other more diverse or integrated areas, I find that wite people (aside from bigots) tend to listen more and talk less. They also have more familiarity with black people and black friends. But that's people because the typical white person neighborhoods in greater Boston is something like 81/82% white and 2.6% black. Its really not nearly that drastic in other cosmopolitan areas.
As a result when talking to white people from "just outside of Boston"...culturally-it can be a bit like talking to someone from a small lily-white town. Because oftentimes they are. The way in which white people in MA see thing and the world around them is through a hyper white lense. And they unknowingly expect POC to see things through that lens but we dont.
One conversation I had which a ~40-year-old Black woman at Amtrak in DC, She saw my ticket was to Boston and we started talking. She didn't like white people from Boston because they were rude "rude is one thing but think they're smarter than me *shakes head*" The rudeness is probably the New England coldness but the "think theyre smarter than me" is the centering of their views/opinions over POC in 9/10 circumstances. She said she would let people know 'she was from Baltimore and she didn't play that'
A white person in Jersey City/NYC isnt going to want to take a black person to the whitest place in town because theyre a bit more aware. A white person in Boston doesn't have that awareness generally nor enough interest to know where different races of people congregate. Whit people in NYC or DCwill typically know a few places where non-white people frequent even if they never go. Sort of a basic understanding and respect thing.
If you talk about Dorchester to a white person very often they're going to immediately flip the conversation to Dorchester circa 1987 or something when it was whiter and they could relate a story back to you. If you talk to a white person about Roxbury being the heart of black culture they will fight you on it and say it's only been mostly black since like 1970 in an attempt to downplay the racial aspect of gentrification there. Not something you're gonna hear about much of Brooklyn or parts of Philly because people know and respect that black identity of the neighborhood(s).
It's the subtle things. This lack of perceived "respect or understanding may very well stem from White people in New England not having POC in upper management at their jobs and having the highest share of white household % of people making 200k+ (85.6%) out of all major metros besides Portland.
Like where? Certainly not Baltimore (I have family in the area, and they’re some of the least well-travelled people I know).
I don't find white people in Baltimore to be necessarily friendly to me or black people at all... but its very obvious in how they talk, the areas they frequent and what they consider to be middle class/desirable areas they are around black people and have a much much better understanding of them than white people in New England-by far.
Obviously, this can change on a hyper-local level but regionally its pretty consistent. The only "area" id find to be an exception is the New Haven area.
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