What follows is a reflection by Sen. Barry Finegold of Andover after meeting with the Duxbury High School football team, which used the term “Auschwitz” when calling an audible at the line of scrimmage. EARLIER TODAY I had the opportunity to meet with members of the Duxbury High School football team. We had a great […]
Race/Racism
Posted inEducation
Duxbury Dragons and death camps
Almost more shocking than the news of Duxbury High School’s football team using terms like “rabbi” and “Auschwitz” for its line-of-scrimmage audible play calling is the fact that it apparently was not a new thing. The Boston Herald reports that “the use of anti-Semitic and other offensive langauge by Duxbury players and under the purview […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Cops, docs, and systemic racism
REFORM COMMISSIONS AT the state and national level have been charged with exploring ways to improve law enforcement, with a particular focus on addressing the issues of racism and racial bias in policing. As they look to understand biases in policing and recommend steps to eliminate it, the groups might draw valuable insights from an […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Why are Latinos so overrepresented in the state child welfare system?
LAST MONTH, workers from the state Department of Children and Families knocked on the door of Raquel, an El Salvadoran immigrant living in Worcester. DCF had gotten an anonymous call about a fight between her husband and her teenage son. Since then, Raquel, speaking Spanish through an interpreter, said she has struggled to communicate with DCF workers, often because of the language barrier. DCF sometimes has an interpreter available, but not always. She […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, Race/Racism
Doris Bunte, a mentor to many
DORIS BUNTE, who died this week at age 87, was a wonderful woman, a magnificent mentor, and a prodigious politician. But the word that describes her best is “Mother.” Doris was a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She was also a mother to many more than her biological offspring. As the first African-American woman ever elected […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Needham police report exonerates officers of racial bias
MORE THAN A year after a black man was handcuffed by four police officers near a CVS store in Needham on suspicion of shoplifting, the police department is finally getting around to acknowledging it screwed up – sort of. A January 11 letter to Marvin Henry from Lt. Christopher Baker reports the Needham Police Department […]
Posted inOpinion
A direct approach to generational urban poverty
I WATCHED in horror as the riots unfolded in the US Capitol on January 6, but I was not surprised. It was a culmination of actions we have seen over decades. It strained credulity in the moment but not for anyone who has been paying attention since former president Trump’s ride down an escalator or […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
State slow to improve criminal justice data collection
A WELL-KNOWN management maxim warns, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. By that reckoning, those trying to better the state’s criminal justice system are often flying blind. How long, for example, does the average probationer in Massachusetts stay on probation? Or how many people last year had their probation revoked? State Probation Commissioner Edward Dolan has no idea. While each probationer has their […]
Posted inPolitics
Walsh evolution in confronting racism takes center stage
THE BOOKENDS TO Marty Walsh’s seven-year run as mayor are all you need to look at to understand how the issue of race has gone from long-simmering, but often backburner, issue to a central subject of the day in Boston. As part of a sprawling 12-candidate field for the open mayor’s seat in 2013, Walsh […]
Posted inPolitics
Biden taps Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for labor secretary
PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN has tapped Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as his labor secretary, a move that would elevate the former union leader to a prominent national post and set in motion a rare contest for an open mayor’s seat in the city. Walsh, 53, a former leader of the Boston area building trades union, had been seen as a leading contender for the […]