Monday, May 9, 2005

Race in Boston

After moving to Boston, I realized just how segregated this city is and how the communities, geographically and socially, fall sharply on racial lines. Add to the decades of historical discrimination two events in the past few weeks that have put race back on the list of hot issues in Boston.

First, there was a report that concluded discrimination against racial minorities was still widely prevalent. Secondly, a ceremony to mark the 60 year anniversary of the end of the Holocaust is protested by white supremacy groups.

What makes Boston so different than other big cities (I'm thinking of San Francisco)? Is it the people? The history? The weather?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That report is citing interviews and polling information from the very group of people that is trying to prove the racism. [“Mr. Blackman, are you ever the subject of discrimination? You are? This will make a great study sample.”] It makes no mention of any other minority racial group than Blacks or Latinos, nor does it cross question other minority groups about groups other than themselves (not even Latinos about Blacks). This along with the fact that the study was commissioned (read: paid for) by the Civil Rights Project. My point is not to say that racism doesn’t exist, but one could hardly call this an unbiased research report.

Furthermore is this to say that other minority ethnicities like Chinese, Japanese, Native American, Jewish, etc. are not discriminated against? Or are these minority group’s racial struggles simply not occurring on par with the select two minority groups presented? The must be some sort of explanation for that, one would assume.

It’s interesting, Yen, that you would fail to notice the total and rather conspicuous absence of any of the Pacific Asian ethnicities from this study, given your obvious racial composition. I would be much more interested to read *your* thoughts on discrimination of minority groups, including your own, in Boston more than the article’s (provided you could make it half-way objective).