David McMullinMay 3, 2023

The other day, talking about issues on the fediverse, @mekkaokereke proposed an (apt) analogy which led to a tangential conversation about racism in Boston. I noticed, as I have whenever this comes up, a curious thing about what “Boston” seems to represent in the public imagination.

A thread (a rant?) about #Boston #demographics…
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https://musicians.today/@mcmullin/110283766606470442

David McMullin (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Boston resident here with one clarification: Boston is _not_ especially white. What it is is segregated. But there are plenty of Black people here and they’re not hiding. (Imagine listening to everyone agreeing about how white NYC is, as if the Upper East Side below 96th St. is the whole city.) Whether Boston is as racist as everyone thinks, I’m not qualified to say. (Black Bostonians can tell you.) But compare it to NYC, Philadelphia, New Haven—not VT.

Musicians Today
Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023

I’m not going to offer an opinion about racism in Boston, because there are 1.3 million residents of color in the Boston area who can speak about that with more authority.

Does that surprise you? That’s actually what I want to talk about.

2/

Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023
One thing everyone seems to agree on is that “Boston” is about the whitest city there could ever be. That’s apparently its defining feature. People say things like “I lived there for a year and there were no Black people anywhere!” Then it turns out they’re talking about Cape Cod or the exurbs beyond 495. Or Vermont, even.
3/
Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023
You could never get away with saying “New York City has no diversity at all,” and then trying to back that up by talking about Greenwich or the Hamptons. But use that logic for “Boston” and everyone just nods along. Whatever this place is that people mean when they say “Boston,” it’s not the actual city of Boston.
4/
Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023

The City of Boston itself is less than 50% white. Granted, the city lines are rather arbitrary, and it’s part of a larger metropolis including several other municipalities and rings of suburbs. But many of the nearby communities are also quite diverse. It gets whiter the farther out you go, but however you define Greater Boston, it’s going to include a substantial nucleus of non-white residents: 1.3 million, according to the Census Bureau.
5/

https://statisticalatlas.com/metro-area/Massachusetts/Boston/Race-and-Ethnicity#figure/place/non-white-population

Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023

The only way Boston could be as white as everyone thinks is if these people just don’t count.

The “Boston” people are thinking of seems to mean: just the white parts of the largest possible geographic area around the city, excluding most of the city itself. And sure, if you do it that way, then “Boston” is all white.

But so is Chicago. So is Detroit. And no one ever talks this way about those places.

6/

Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023

Why are people so committed to this odd mythic conception of an all-white “Boston,” and what agenda does it serve?

(Not a rhetorical question; I’m honestly curious.)

7/end

Show threadmekka okereke May 3, 2023

@mcmullin

I think what may be going on, is that white visitors to Boston are completely unprepared for how segregated the city is.

If you're white, and you visit Boston and go to white places, you see almost no Black people. So if you're baselining on a "normal" level of segregation, you might reasonably conclude that "Boston is super white!" When the truth is that Boston is super segregated and super racist.

Show threadDavid McMullinMay 3, 2023

@mekkaokereke

Oh it’s segregated, no doubt—and that surely reflects racism. I don’t blame people for getting the wrong idea who visit once and just walk down Newbury Street.

But a lot of these comments come from folks who claim to know the place better than that. And from people who don’t know anything but are quite confident that places like Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan etc either can’t exist or if they do, they aren’t “Boston.” That’s what bugs me.

Show threadDr. Eric J. Fielding, PhDMay 3, 2023
@mcmullin @mekkaokereke I grew up in Arlington, which is only 6 miles from Boston, not an outer suburb. In the 1960’s and 1970’s when I lived there, I never saw a single Black person in Arlington or the neighboring cities and towns. I see on Wikipedia that in 2010 Arlington is still only 2.3% Black. I did not hear people explicitly saying racist things, but that level of segregation is not random variation.
Show threadDemonHuskyAug 29, 2023
@EricFielding @mcmullin @mekkaokereke Arlington's stopping the Red Line extension was explicitly racist, "not wanting those people coming here", so yeah, not random demographics
Show threadknizer

@EricFielding @mcmullin @mekkaokereke

If anyone else is interested in pulling at that specific thread because it also surprised them, here's citation backing up @DemonHusky's assertion:

https://tuftsobserver.org/red-tape-why-the-red-line-stopped-short/

Red Tape: Why the Red Line Stopped Short – Tufts Observer

A working-class, Irish-Catholic community on the edge of suburbia, with access to downtown Boston, and a small-town feel that no one wanted to change—this is Arlington, MA in the 1970s. Most families had lived in the town for their entire lives, and connections ran deep. The church parish was strong (“devout, conservative and traditional”) and

Tufts Observer – Tufts's Student Magazine Since 1895
Aug 30, 2023 at 2:44amWeb