Boston has a bad reputation when it comes to race relations but it’s not really fair.
There are certainly many dark moments in Boston’s race relations history, and as a Bostonian I’m not proud of these... but the characterization of Boston as a ‘Racist” city is not accurate. Some things to consider...
*Boston was a hotbed for the Abolitionist movement in the late 1700’s and throughout the 1800’s before the Civil War.
*Boston had the first Black Battalion recognized as such and fighting in the Civil War.
*Boston has had a successful African American mayor who was well respected for years after he was voted out of office.
*The idea that Boston is racist is ridiculous when you think of how African Americans were treated in the South through Jim Crow. I can’t say there were never lynchings in Massachusetts, I honestly don’t know... i’m assuming there where lynchings at some point all of America. That said, it wasn’t a ‘thing’ here from the late 1800’s thru the mid-late 1900’s like it was in the South.
Boston’s bad reputation (relative to other major cities) is mostly based on the Forced Bussing Riots of the 1970’s. These definitely had a racial component, and the whole reason bussing was imposed was because the City wasn’t properly funding schools in predominantly African American neighborhoods, but mainly they were caused by the fact that children where being pulled from neighborhood schools and put on busses and driven 30-60minutes across town to other schools. It really wasn’t the right solution to the problem. I think people need to look at the history and put themselves in the shoes of parents whose kids were now being forced to go to schools 60 minutes away, when they had lived within walking distance the previous year.
Racial insults at sporting events, directed towards the competition, is ugly and obviously a sign of bias if not outright racism of the INDIVIDUAL acting in that manor. That said, we are a big sports town and some fans get pretty nasty to opposing players regardless of race. Unfortunately some can be more nasty and/or let bias appear when the opposing player is a different color.
We also love of home athletes, and I don’t think we love the our athletes of color any less than we love our caucasian athletic heroes.
God save Big Papi!
Check out this video...
0https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/video/black-history-month-does-boston-deserve-label-racist-city
