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Boston and Racism
About a year ago I was watching the Yankees beat the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in a bar with my friends. The camera panned to the stands to follow a foul ball. I remarked that Yankee games had so many more characters than a Red Sox game. It's true. You look in the stands and you see so many of those New York sports fans. Brash, loud, dressed in heavy Yankees gear. They aren't generally my type of guy - I'm more low key - but I love seeing them. It's just a different type of fan.

Let's compare that to a Red Sox game. There are some loud and obnoxious types but for the most part, since the team started selling out every game, you get a middle class white clientèle. My friends, all Sox fans, brought that up. There are more characters in New York in general. It's not strictly race that gives you the diversity of fans in New York and the homogeneity in Boston, but it must help. The conversation turned to racism and the perception that Boston is a racist town. Now I, the Yankees fan (see, I'm a good and fair person, Boston), said I thought that was unfair. Boston is the only major city I've ever lived in (and I've always lived on the outskirts near Boston University) so I have nothing to compare it to. My hunch though is that Boston gets an unfair rap relative to other cities. Sure, there are some major issues with segregated neighborhoods and flat out racism (historical, re: busing, the Red Sox and modern day). Do you think cities in the southeast are beacons of racial harmony though? How about Texas or the midwest?

Now our conversation stuck close to racism as it affected sports. I made this argument and my friends said it didn't matter. Boston is a major sports market. It has to compare itself with New York, Chicago and DC, not Buffalo, Nashville and San Antonio. That's both fair and not. If Boston is going to run with the big boys in terms of attracting high level talent they are going to get compared to the big boys on a range of factors. Half of me would love to see Boston get the shaft. New York teams, my teams, would profit greatly. It's also not fair though that Boston is stuck with this stigma when other places may be worse and aren't examined as closely. Again, I have no evidence but the number of times I've heard "Boston is racist" backed up by what happened in 50s, 60s and 70s with no mention of other cities makes me think this is something everyone just "knows" and therefore in need of examination.

Bostonist links to this ridiculously weak post at The New York times that seeks to figure out what town is the most racist. Of course the author calls out Boston with a couple of anecdotes. One such story is the "longstanding bigotry in the Red Sox baseball organization". That's a good point, but why cherry pick sports organizations? Wouldn't it have been more honest to also point out the Celtics' great historical record with African Americans? They drafted the first African American, had the first all black starting five and the first African American coach.

I grew up in Boonville, New York. When I came to Boston to study computer engineering at BU I saw diversity all over the place - Indians, Asians, Eastern Europeans Jews and fewer African Americans and Hispanics. That was something different to me. I thought I was in Diversity City. That wasn't exactly true though. When we talk about racism and diversity in this country it really does boil down to black and white. I say that with no level of scorn, no Oppressed White Man Syndrome bitterness. It's just the way things are. Looking back at our nation's history, can you blame people for thinking this way? The problem is that, just as people fall back on stupid stereotypes for minorities, they also tend to do the same when determining who is a racist and who is not.
I understand what you are saying about the diversity in Boston and I often have the diversity argument with many people. I came from the city of Rochester, NY where I grew up as a minority (I am white).

When I came to work here in Boston I couldn't believe all the white people here. It was a severe culture shock for me. I did not however feel that made people more racist, just more white. It also made me wonder why I was always taught that New England was "black friendly" since back in the slave days, however when I got here there were very few African-Americans.

I guess whitey landed here and never left but why there isn't more diversity if beyond me.

Posted at 7/23/2008 11:02:16 PM by Jason Kuter


 
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