THE POLICE are four times more likely to physically arrest a Black teen than a White teen for a juvenile offense. But why is that? Do Black teens commit more serious offenses, are they hurt by biased policing, or both? A new report uses state court data to not only draw attention to racial disparities […]
Race/Racism
Posted inOpinion
Jackson’s stand against ‘colorblind’ Constitution
IN HER celebrated exchange with Alabama’s Solicitor General, the newest Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, eviscerated his argument that our Constitution is and should be “colorblind.” Rather, she declared, the intent of those who framed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments was to be “color conscious” in safeguarding the civil liberties of the 4 million enslaved Blacks freed by […]
Posted inEconomy
Closing the racial wealth gap
IT’S BEEN MORE than seven years since the Boston Federal Reserve Bank published a report, titled “The Color of Wealth in Boston,” that has served as something of a regional wake-up call to the issue of the enormous racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. The report highlighted the now-often cited, but still no less jaw-dropping […]
Posted inOpinion
Time for Boston sports team owners to up their civil rights game
HAVEN’T WE HAD enough racist behavior in the seats of Boston’s pro sports venues? Segregationist management practices and racial animus in the stands are as old as pro sports in our city. From avowed segregationist owners like George Preston Marshall (Boston Braves-cum-Washington Commanders) and Thomas Yawkey (Red Sox) to the second balcony in the old […]
Posted inPolitics, Race/Racism
Healey regrets 2020 comment on ‘how forests grow’
ON JUNE 2, 2020, eight days after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Attorney General Maura Healey gave a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in which she focused on the lack of progress in addressing racial inequality and the storm of protests churned up by the killing. As she […]
Posted inArts and Culture
How allyship helped make Bill Russell a legend
ON A BRIGHT and otherwise perfect afternoon at Fenway Park, just before the start of Sunday’s game, the PA announcer shared the news of Bill Russell’s passing. Many, if not most, had not yet heard. As one commenter recounted, “The sound the crowd made was one I’ve never encountered before. Gasps of shock and surprise […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Baker signs law banning hairstyle discrimination
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Tuesday signed the CROWN Act into law, making Massachusetts the 18th state to ban discrimination based on “natural hairstyles.” The governor held a joyous bill signing ceremony in his office, surrounded by advocates and lawmakers, the first such ceremony in his office since before the pandemic. The bill was prompted in […]
Posted inEducation
Black girls disciplined in school more often than Whites
IN THE LAST normal school year before the pandemic, Black girls in Massachusetts were disciplined in school at more than three times the rate of white girls. Often, Black girls say, they are punished for the same offenses for which white students are not. Melanie Rush, director of research and policy at the Massachusetts Appleseed […]
Posted inOpinion
State not living up to environmental justice responsibilities
JUST OVER A YEAR after Gov. Charlie Baker signed “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” which contained protections for environmental justice populations, the state has found itself roiled in controversy for sacrificing the health and well-being of those very same, protected populations. Investigative reporting revealed that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care, Race/Racism
Why Black women die from childbirth twice as often as white women
WHEN NNEKA HALL was pregnant with her third child, she had a symptom of preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication, but her doctor never caught it. Hall felt her daughter hiccuping and worried something was wrong, but the doctor told her she was having a recurrence of depression because of separating from her husband. “My child […]