BOSTON! DIVERSITY AND DIVISION!

This is a discussion on how Boston has become more ethnically diverse, and the problems it has created.

While Boston has become an ethnically diverse city, there are still many places that are cultural enclaves.  For example, the Irish-American community holds down the neighborhoods of South Boston and Charlestown.  They reacted violently to the fact that blacks were being bussed into their neighborhoods to go to school in the 1970s.  No wonder many of the kids began enrolling in Catholic schools or going to schools outside town.

Polish and Lithuanian peoples traditionally called South Boston their home, too.  However, these 2 ethnic cultures are in trouble as the old timers pass on and new generations decide to move to the suburbs.  Of course, they’ll still travel for miles to attend Mass in their native language at the ethnic churches, but they’ll take off later in the day to get on with their own lives and pursuits.  Asians and young professionals are taking over the neighborhood.

Blacks and Hispanics have traditionally held the neighborhoods of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain as their own.  I remember going to school by traveling through these neighborhoods and wondering if there was a world out there from where they lived.  

There were once five Irish ballrooms in that area, where Irish and Irish-Americans alike used to go for dancing and socializing on weekends.  The violence of the 1960s and 70s changed all that.  In the 80s, drugs and gun violence proliferated and the neighborhoods began to go through a period of decay.  

In the late 70s and early 80s, Dorchester Avenue, known as an Irish neighborhood through and through started to change as Hispanics and Asians started moving in.  Many of the businesses that are on that area are now serving ethnic clientele.

One such shop was a tobacco store and newsstand, which I got kicked out of in the summer of ’82 for behaving in a lewd manner while reading a bondage magazine.  I shall spare you readers the details. That place is now an Asian fish restaurant.  One of the Irish pubs that used to be on Dorchester Avenue is now an ethnic hair salon.  And the movie theater that used to play a double bill of films each evening has closed, as has a local dancing school.

I moved out of the city in 1986, but I still work here and I still wander its environs just about every day of the year, unless I’m sick or the local teams are playing.  And where I’m living now, it’s becoming more ethnically diverse, too.

In Boston, 140 languages are spoken and Mass is offered in 25 of them.  There’s ethnic radio and TV all over the place.  And various ethnic festivals are held around the city.  Somehow, however, most people want to stay where they’re familiar and know their territory.

Of course, things are changing.  With the redevelopment of various neighborhoods in Boston, people are reaching out to bring these communities together.  Communication is essential, and that’s why many outreach programs are starting to combat drugs, violence and racism, helping to make our city a place to live in together.

Yes, it won’t take place overnight, but someday we will see a city where everyone is valued for the content of their character and the contributions they bring to the table.  And maybe, the divisions will be replaced by unity.