Why is Boston so famous for its racism?! (backyard, property)

[RBThescot]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

I’ll admit that it seems more common in the black community to smoke pot than in white ones.

Says who? I grew up in the lilly white Boston suburbs and graduated from Burlington High School. Half the kids I knew were smoking pot, certainly by 1967-68.

None of the Black kids I knew were pot smokers, only the white kids. Arguably, there were few Blacks in Burlington at time and the one Black kid we all knew, who graduated with my youngest sibling, was the son of a sergeant on the Burlington Police Department.

I always assumed that pot smoking was a white suburban thing because we all smoked back then (and still do today, every day). Otherwise, we knew that Black blues and jazz men smoked and we certainly knew that when we used to see Mississippi John Hurt, Fred MacDowell and some of the others when they were around Cambridge and playing at the Club 47 and who were familiar with the weed.

[RBThescot]

Boston's status as a racist city was cemented in the 1970's during the de-seg/busing era.

I refer anyone to the iconic 1976 photo, seen around the world, of a young white thug, in Government Center, beating Black attorney Theodore "Ted" Landmark with the American flag. Nothing says America like a Black man with broken glasses, broken nose on the ground being beaten by Old Glory waving proudly in the breeze.

The photos of Louise Day Hicks doing her best George Wallace impression, and many others, assaulting Black children trying to attend a public school - the stones and bottles and n-words being thrown at them - were seen by the whole world also.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by RBThescot

Boston's status as a racist city was cemented in the 1970's during the de-seg/busing era.

That was 50 years ago, most people that were adults at that time are now dead. Boston as changed quite a lot..

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Lampert

That was 50 years ago, most people that were adults at that time are now dead. Boston as changed quite a lot..

It sure has. But while we're unlikely to see a repeat of busing, the city still has major systemic racial inequities. Combine the history with the current disparities, and it makes sense that Boston retains a bad reputation and incidents like fans yelling racist slurs at players still garner lots of attention locally and nationally.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by Lampert

That was 50 years ago, most people that were adults at that time are now dead. Boston as changed quite a lot..

Forty-four years ago. Ted Landsmark is still around, so is photographer Stanley Forman, and I imagine his assailants are too. Plenty of people remember the photo and the era. Let another 20 years pass before pronouncing everyone dead. Nazi hunting has only just wound down and those events happened 75-80 years ago.

[Bridge781]

People will never let racism go. Ever. Anytime a white person does something wrong to a black person there will be cries of racism. I don’t foresee this ever changing.

[Boston Shudra]

Boo hoo

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

I would regularly see bald people smoking pot ok their porch

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

smoking weed on your porch is legal

No, it's not legal.

You can't smoke in any public area...and that would include private property that is readily viewable from a public way.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by Lampert

That was 50 years ago, most people that were adults at that time are now dead. Boston as changed quite a lot..

There are reasons for this. Some of my suppositions:
1. Boston black people do not have the same multi generational ties to the south, as other east coast and midwest cities. The great migration didnt extend to Boston. As a result, boston is not a part of the standard discussion among black people in the USA. So there is no overwhelming impression of Boston among USA blacks, except what we see on the news.
2. Word of mouth among black people for the past 50 years has been "watch yourself in Boston. They flipped schoolbuses over like Birmingham!" Ignorance gets filled in with fear.

[johngolf]

I believe racism was alive and well into the 60's, then things started to change. Not fast, but things were changing. Then in Boston along came busing and Louise Day Hicks which showed racism was alive and well (sickly so). Boston tries, but has yet yet to crawl out from under this scum.