How Racist Is Boston? | The Daily Show

whether seriously or thrown around as a joke Boston is often referred to as one of the most racist cities in America so we decided to send Roy Wood jr. up to uncover why Beantown got that rep Boston home to Mark Wahlberg Donnie Wahlberg all all of the rest of the Wahlberg's it's also home to spotlight the team of Boston Globe reporters who expose the city's church sex scandal I'm here because the spotlight team has been asking another uncomfortable question how racist is Boston for decades people have called Boston races for numerous reasons the Red Sox were the last baseball team to integrate Bostonians violently resisted desegregation even in 2017 fans at Fenway Park called Adam Jones the n-word and all this got spotlight curious reporter Aquila Johnson so we wanted to look at why does Boston have the racist reputation and why does it deserve it how do you measure racism what are you doing right how many times the n-word is said in a day so like in the grommet er no no okay so one study we found showed that the median net worth of white families in Boston was two hundred forty seven thousand five hundred dollars compare that to the median net worth of black families in Boston which was eight dollars accountant the house is like $8,000 no just eight eight dollars eight dollars that's that's not even a grande soy latte in essence net worth is what you own minus what you owe and black folks in Boston don't own a lot it's not even uh four foot long no racism is more than just attitude not even enough to buy twelve don't eleven donuts this is one example of what structural racism looks like I'm sorry I eat when I get sad my social inequality if Boston is the cradle of equality spotlight wants to know why black and Roman and many of Boston's universities has really gone up in 30 years or why there's so little diversity in boardrooms and hospitals or how among eight major cities black people voted Boston the least welcoming to people of color surely the people of Boston must be filling all that structural racism to find out I went to one of the city's most beloved cathedrals Fenway Park I don't see that racism myself honestly no I don't think Boston's erase' City I think that we've got a lot of like attention with with our sports being in the media so Boston's racist reputation is a conspiracy formed by people who hate Boston sports teams for winning all the damn time yes they love to hate us yeah I don't think if Boston is a racist City at all so how do you know I don't feel it you know it's just a gut feel like it's racist that Deb just never encountered it huh spotlight says the city has a race problem why haven't these Bostonians seen it the n-double-a-cp s Tanisha Sullivan has a theory the spotlight gave us data to support what black people in and around the city already knew so if the data was news to you you called the article the spotlight article but if you already knew about it you just called it that's what I've been trying to tell y'all article because the racism is not as overt it's difficult for people who don't experience it on a day-to-day basis to realize that it's there ah I get it I've been asking the wrong people if you want to know if Jurassic Park is safe you don't ask the dinosaurs it's not as racist as it used to be where there are some blatant problems a white person walks into a room and boss they don't want to think about that I'm the only white person here on a scale of Jazzy Jeff - Jeff Sessions how long comfortable is it for black people tell me when to stop it's just session for you right there so that's about 60 70 percent comfortable not quite hey boy go home but definitely no you know where you are allowed no where you want it time to fix a problem you can't see to help this city recognize structural racism maybe I just need to use the one thing that brings all Bostonians together towards sports sports day looks probably teams for winners I just need to get this city of Champions hyped about finally winning at the one thing they suck it we're about three people respect which treats black people this it's Atlanta actually and then New York and then San Francisco and then Charlotte Tampa and then at the bottom is Boston but these people really need it was a mascot so like gave them one introducing Wilkie the Wallace people don't always get the same opportunities [Music] working already see Boston feels good to be on fighting structural racism is going to be exhausting but if white people are willing to put in the legwork we'll get there [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 6,514,094

Rating: 4.6899314 out of 5

Keywords: the daily show, trevor noah, daily show with trevor noah, the daily show episodes, comedy central, comedians, comedian, funny video, comedy videos, funny clips, noah trevor, trevor noah latest episode, daily show latest episode, daily show, trevor, news, politics, trump, daily show trump, trevor noah trump, Boston, racist cities, Roy Wood Jr., Spotlight, Boston Globe, Akilah Johnson, diversity, NAACP, Boston sports, racism Boston, Boston racist, investigative journalism, inequality

Id: QtUgq2Q1ivA

Length: 5min 52sec (352 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 15 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Prodigal_Moon]

I've only been here 3 years, but I've gotten the impression that Boston was/is a very old-school, clique-y kind of town. Where people have their group identities like a certain neighborhood, or union, and that gets intertwined with ethnic identity. So I'm sure anti-black racism comes along with that, as well as a lot of other in-group/out-group stuff. There's also the fact that NE in general is incredibly white compared to most parts of the country, so people are actually able to stay in these bubbles.

Transplants, meanwhile, are on the outside already. and in contexts (college, downtown, tech field) where it's pretty diverse.

I'm guessing someone who grew up here will school me in a minute, but this is just what I've heard/observed.

[u/Dr_puffnsmoke]

I grew up in Boston but have lived all over the country (mostly in the south) and it’s a weird type of racism in Boston. I think this article did a decent job of touching on it but it’s really structural in nature. Like in the south people aren’t subtle with their racism. Here, most people don’t consider themselves racist but we have a system which really really lowers interactions between black and white folks and as a result white people tend to be uncomfortable around black people. This further pushes blacks to the fridges (whether consciously or not). In southern racism, the higher percentage of minorities really pushes this same force to a head. You can’t just not see black people all day living in Atlanta. You either learn tolerance from seeing how similar we really all are or double down on racist ideals. There’s no avoiding the problem like we do here.

Edit: just as an example I will use my own experience. Growing up in a Boston suburb, I maybe had 5 black kids in my class (of over 400). They tended to stick together and short of things like sports the interactions were limited. The rest of us just made wild assumptions that they were far more “street” than would ever have been justified. My only real interactions with black people outside of this was when say I’d go into Boston to watch a Sox game and there would be a beggar or street musician (or just folks in the crowd or train). My parents would always warn us to keep our hands on our wallets to make sure we didn’t get pickpocketed. I never really consciously thought anything bad about black people but I certainly acted differently around them to a white person in an equivalent scenario. That type of behavior multiplied across the cities population will have an effect on the opportunities presented to people of color. I never considered myself a racist but it took me a long time to see that some of my behaviors were.

[u/KazamaSmokers]

Okay, the Red Sox were the last baseball team to integrate, but the Celtics and Bruins were the FIRST teams in their leagues to integrate. Why is that NEVER mentioned?

[u/miroa12004]

Have to laugh at people pretending that Boston is not a racist city. Wonder how many of those defending racism in Boston are actually people of color.

As a Middle Eastern first generation immigrant in the city, I experienced it first hand, in my day to day life.

[u/[deleted]]

I know Daily Show is comedy, but I really wish they would have gone a little lighter on the jokes, or integrated them a little more poignantly because this is an important topic but naturally inflammatory for people that don't want to address, or even admit that this issue is there. The Wokey the Walrus bit was pretty damn funny.

I think a lot of people seeing this would knee jerk and try to poke holes wherever they can, and it's important to get some salient, hard-coded points across that will be harder to wave off.

But also maybe we shouldn't be getting some of our most sociologically aware news from Comedy Central.

[u/logrus101]

"Know your neighborhood. Know where you're supposed to be." This made me sad, but she called out the subtle racism that's all over New England. Racism can be as small as a look of disapproval when someone is paying with EBT. Or checking that your phone is still in your pocket after you walk past. Or crossing to the other side of the street. Or picking a different subway car.

[u/joshragem]

When I had jury duty, the judge was pretty grumpy that I said black people weren’t treated fairly in our justice system.

[u/MarquisJames]

Boston is just as racist as other cities but we wouldn't no that because the people who are telling us that Boston isn't racist is white people.

How many people commenting in here, are even elegible to experience racism?

[u/1maco]

I just want to say that a national poll is an insanely bad metric in determining how racist a place is. That’s basically asking about a reputation (as seen with San Francisco being so laughably high)

Because believe it or not most people have not been to most places.