boston
boston
so I’ve lived here almost two years now and the place still mystifies me.
what I already knew, and “discovered” further this spring is that there are (at least) two bostons. there’s the not-very-racially-diverse back bay/beacon hill/south end/jamaica plain/west somerville/west Cambridge/west Roxbury/roslindale economic power source tossed salad with a lotta lettuce. And then there’s the Dorchester/Mattapan/Roxbury/east Cambridge/east Somerville/revere/Chelsea/hyde park eastern and southern half moon primarily habitated by people-of-color. Fortunately I had the privilege to work in the latter boston this spring, so I would no longer have to entirely speculate about the boston most of my friends don’t know about/ignore.
of course I’m wrong about all this already. I don’t really know boston; I know some history, and I can see some trends, but much of my perception, despite lived experience, is in guesstimate, speculation, and stereotype. I want to voice some of those here, however, in order to flush them out.
I have a few friends in nyc and dc who have told me how boston is not (that) diverse. I remember reading the last installment of a series focused on race in the boston globe last year that interviewed a black family that moved here—many of their friends asked them, “Why Boston, they have so many problems there” or “It’s so racist there.” The family, after having a hard time living here (in a predominantly white neighborhood) moved to the South, where they feel more at home.
When I walk around the former boston, esp. in the red squares (davis, Harvard, porter)—btw, my Microsoft word just capitalizes when it wants to, and I don’t want to comb it—it seems like the area is diverse. I don’t feel like people of color are the majority, but compared to college campuses at which I’ve worked (Pomona, Williams, and Lesley), the economically richer parts of Cambridge and somerville seem pretty multi-ethnic. in fact, harvard’s campus seems to have a more diverse population than any of those other schools, tho it also seems more tied in with Harvard square life. However, a lot of the folks seem to keep to themselves. We—I’m not gonna disassociate myself although I want to—just roll like we are still undergraduates, de facto keeping to ourselves and occasionally getting frustrated that many people of color are keeping to themselves. when I’ve been to adams morgan or Dupont circle or backstage at the daily show—oh wait I haven’t been there—it was a pretty similar experience. often it’s a suburban phenomenon and maybe it’s not even a phenomenon here, but if it’s not, how and why do many people think boston’s not diverse?
“well, it’s really segregated”
I’ve heard that phrase in a lot of cities from some of my white friends. Albany, NY; DC; even LA and NYC. People live in neighborhoods. Cultures stick together, often necessarily, especially if they don’t speak the language or don’t bask in the privileges of a dominant population. As many of you know, ‘Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria,’ is one of my favorite books.
I remember a poet, radio dj, and director of the Office of Black Student Affairs at the Claremont Colleges warned us, in a group conversation about race, about using the term segregation. Segregation to him meant forced from the outside. Native Americans and American Indians are segregated to reservations, and Blacks and Africans were segregated to slavery, to the back of the bus, to a different bathroom and water fountain. There are many more examples, some more subtle but just as institutional and debilitating.
I wrote most of this a few days ago and have though revising, shaping, or extending it; really pushing my intercultural training to show what I’ve learned, but the semester is over and to humble my Mastery, I figure I’ll remember the key rule of intercultural learning. Communication, best facilitated through asking questions and asking for feedback, is the key. So please, give me your thoughts on this.
June 11th, 2006 at 10:00 am
i believe and have witnessed that dialogue is the key. it is the only way in and out of the issues of race or death because you excavate peoples true learned behaviors and thoughts around race. I have noticed lately that even in LA people are surprisingly apt to interact warmly when the ice is broken. Maybe its just cus i have a new baby attached to my chest.
June 11th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
‘Segregation’ does seem to imply some sort of outside control, I agree, though I do think that it can be less outright than legislation. There are less overt forces of segregation, especially, when you’re talking about how cities are populated, economic impositions. Still, I think you’re right to think about that gut reaction that so many of us have, that Boston is not a success story, even relatively, of cohabitation. I’m not sure why I have always tended to think that way, other than the fact that I am struck, every time I’m there, by how different it is than other cities that I visit. Maybe that is something for us to try to mull over, and that you could try to address. What aspects of Boston, of its history, its layout, its industry and culture, etc, have given rise to people feeling that way? Why Boston? And why does that feeling manage to find so many people? It’s a good question to raise; do you feel like you’re moving towards any answers?
June 26th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
wow, reading this makes me want to write my article even more. A few months back, I posted a question on craigslist asking for comments from racist people. I didn’t reveal my identity or my stance on racism. I just said I wanted to hear some honest thoughts from racist people on what they are thinking. I got some interesting feedback. The most poignant was a guy proclaiming his love of how Boston has people of color isolated into little pockets of community. I paused, I considered, I saw the truth. I saw the train rides I take to work everyday. I saw the train rides I take to dance class. I saw the train rides I take home. I saw the neighborhoods I inhabited in the areas of Brighton and Dorchester. I saw the people that were and the people that weren’t. I saw. We can’t see the racism staring us in the face, because it’s glued to our eyesockets and dancing on our foreheads.