A candid look at Boston’s racial divide
Jim Rooney grew up a poor white Southie kid in the ’60’s, and ’70’s, in a Boston that was bitterly divided — economically, ethnically, racially. It was Charlestown versus West Roxbury; African-American versus Haitian versus Asian versus white, he recalled.
“We had hurtful names for every group we could think of, and we were taught stereotypes about each other that were wrong and dangerous,” Rooney told a packed house at the Cutler Majestic Theatre Saturday morning as he opened the first in a series of citywide conversations on race, convened by Mayor Martin J. Walsh.
The extraordinary session was marked by frank and emotional remarks, intense at times but also civil. Such self-examination is essential, Rooney said, for the racism of his childhood is not confined to history. If left unacknowledged, he said, it is a poison that will sicken the city.
Read the full story at the Globe.
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