Comments on: Hard to Escape Violence

By: eugene

eugene — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:44:42 +0000

Is Boston much more racist than other cities in the country? In places where there are few blacks, it is not clear to me that the folks there are “less racist.”

I would be willing to believe that places with more “minorities” than the majority would be more “tolerant.” But does it necessarily mean they are less racist?

These are just questions. I have no answers.

By: Donny

Donny — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:31:39 +0000

I am black and was raised primarily in Boston and I too know it to be a very racist city. There is an unspoken tension that most do not address unless they are forced. I live in the bay area now and people are a lot more willing to except one another, unless you are poor or homeless, then you are just as unwelcome as blacks south Boston. I have friends rite now caught up in the violence in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mission Hill, Mattapan, and all over MA I pray one day they will get out like I did.

By: Jamilah

Jamilah — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:46:03 +0000

You bring up so many good points:

1. I’ve always heard that Boston was hella racist, but that picture — wow.

2. We live in a culture of violence, but how do we break it? Where do we start?

3. It’s a trip how when media pundits talk about violence in communities of color, it’s always from the angle that we’re savages & ruthless. But when it comes to white middle class communities, it’s discussed the “what went wrong?” angle. And then when it comes to our government, all of a sudden it’s heroic.

Great post.

By: eugene

eugene — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:40:16 +0000

And I thought violent video games was the reason for youth violence (Mayor Menino seems to think so). Or was that hip hop? (note the sarcasm…)

I totally agree with your point that war and violence is such a normalized of our history, of our existence, that to some level we’re all desensitized by it.

I also want to add that acts of violence are largely committed by men. For example, I recently learned that all but one of the school shootings that have occurred in American History have been committed by men. But this is rarely pointed out in the media. Again, it is a normalized part of society. Men are so commonly perpetrators that their gender is now normalized.