I’m not sure why the Globe touts the "First in a series of occasional articles about blacks and Latinos living in metro Boston." But the feature on one local African-American woman and her diagnosis of Boston’s racial barriers is quite good. More than the falsely quantitative study of the Harvard Civil Rights Project that caused a stir a few months ago, the focus on a perceptive individuals’ read allows a sharper attention to the subtler forms of racial divide:
So many questions swirl around her new life in this new city. Why is she so often the only black woman in the room when she attends a networking event? Why do so few Bostonians seem to have friends across racial lines, in sharp contrast to Seattle? Why did so many people warn her against living in certain Boston neighborhoods (accentuating their ‘’danger") that all turned out to comprise mostly black residents? … Or, conversely, why have some Bostonians warned her against going to certain white neighborhoods? And why are Boston neighborhoods always identified in terms of race, anyway?
One question I have, though: do people really get routinely asked what their parents do for a living? I’ve lived in Boston a decent time and have never encountered that. Instead, real estate - the neighborhood, even street, where one lives and whether one owns - seems to be the first conversation topic and the one meant, consciously or not, to separate wheat from chaff.
No comments have been added to this post yet.