EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK today, you see independent workers. They’re delivering our packages, driving us across town, checking us out at the register. And more often than not, they’re people of color, Black and brown workers looking to make a few extra bucks with a “side gig.” Especially in this “new normal” of life in a […]
Race/Racism
Posted inCriminal Justice
The crisis of missing Black women and girls in Massachusetts
“If Black women were free it, would mean everyone else would have to be free” – Combahee River Collective Statement I START WITH this line taken from the Combahee River Collective’s statement, issued by the Black feminist lesbian socialist organization formed in 1974 in Boston. The Combahee River Collective was created due to the exclusion […]
Posted inOpinion
Affinity groups are a way to retain teachers of color
I FELT A SENSE of community the moment I walked into my school as a new classroom teacher. Our guidance counselor met me at the door, smiling ear to ear. Within an hour, another Black staff member introduced herself to me and welcomed me into the community. “I make sure to go out of my […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Parole commission investigating racism hits data roadblock
It’s déjà vu all over again. A recently released report regarding structural racism in the parole process ran into the same barrier that has hindered myriad other attempts at analyzing the criminal justice system: a lack of good data. The commission, established by the state’s December 2020 police reform bill after the murder of George […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Parole commission investigating racism hits data roadblock
It’s déjà vu all over again. A recently released report regarding structural racism in the parole process ran into the same barrier that has hindered myriad other attempts at analyzing the criminal justice system: a lack of good data. The commission, established by the state’s December 2020 police reform bill after the murder of George […]
Posted inNews Analysis
We’re reporting Census data all wrong
This report was initially released by the Boston Foundation’s Boston Indicators project. CENSUS DATA on race and ethnicity are invaluable for understanding who we are as a region and how we’re changing over time. Invaluable, yes. But also imperfect. Headlines during the census count last year focused on challenges facing Census Bureau workers during a pandemic and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC splits 4-3 on racial implications of traffic stop
A CAR FULL OF MEN are stopped by the police for a traffic violation. One passenger jumps out and acts aggressively. After restraining him, the police search the other occupants in the car, find a weapon on one man, and arrest him. Does the race of the men matter? The issue of race in the traffic stop became a sharp […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Charlestown High School remake proposal draws fire
A GROUP OF Boston Public Schools parents who say the district is falling short when it comes to educating special needs students want to see Charlestown High School remade into an “innovation school” with greater flexibility to serve those students. But their plan is running into a buzzsaw of opposition from teachers at the school, […]
Posted inOpinion
An eyewitness view of school segregation — in Needham
FOR 60 SECONDS in the early evening, the best view in Greater Boston transportation is aboard an outbound MBTA commuter rail train as it passes Millennium Park in West Roxbury, goes over the Charles River, and into Cutler Park Reservation in Needham. For Needham-bound commuters, it is a peaceful and at times majestic end to […]
Posted inPolitics
After breaking barrier, Holyoke’s first Latino mayor ready to focus on the basics
One in a series on newly-elected mayors in the Commonwealth. WHEN JOSHUA GARCIA takes office on Monday, he will make history as Holyoke’s first Latino mayor. But he is less interested in talking about the barrier-breaking nature of his election than about the city’s $2 million budget deficit and the management problems he’s ready to […]