Boston, Massachusetts. A place known for its winning sports teams, elite schools, and movies with harsh local accents. The city I was born and raised in and is an integral part of who I am today. However, throughout my life, I’ve heard the same narrative over and over again: Boston is the most racist city there is.
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Events such as basketball player Bill Russell’s career with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and ’60s and the busing riots of the 1970s put Boston in a bad light nationally. This crisis was captured in the iconic Pulitzer-Prize winning image “The Soiling of Old Glory” by Stanley Forman which shows a white teenager assaulting a Black man with an American Flag. I mean, yeeeesh.