'Handling' Black Boston
ORGANIZERS of the Democratic National Convention launched "Celebrate Boston 2004" in Roxbury, the heart of the city's African-American community, the first stop in an image-enhancing publicity blitz before Democrats come to Boston in July. On Palm Sunday, Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, attended a church service in Roxbury.
Message to delegates: Black people live in Boston, and sometimes white people, accompanied by TV crews, visit their neighborhoods.
The spin doesn't change the truth about Boston. This is a stimulating, amusing, and ever more diverse city, where many old stereotypes no longer apply. However, here is one stereotype that does: White Boston controls the money, the politics, and the future.
Why raise the issue now? Boston's reputation as a city with historic racial tensions became the focus when Alice A. Huffman, president of the California NAACP and a member of the DNC's site selection committee, raised questions about the lack of African-American faces when Boston worked to land the 2004 convention.
"Where are the people of color?" she asked state Senator Dianne Wilkerson at an early meeting at the Parkman House. Afterward, Huffman was named DNC committee chairwoman.
On Saturday, before participating in a panel discussion about "The State of the State for Blacks in Massachusetts," Huffman said her question about diversity "took on a life of its own here."
It did so with good reason. As a panelist, Huffman exhorted the mostly African-American audience to "rise to the occasion," welcome the Democrats, and accept the fact that "racism is no worse in Boston than any other place."
Perhaps she understood Boston better after listening to her fellow panelists. Kevin Cohee, chairman and CEO of OneUnited Bank, the largest African-American-owned bank in the country. told the audience his business is welcomed in Miami and Los Angeles, but he can't get an ATM site at Logan Airport. Melvin Miller, publisher of the Bay State Banner, complained that Filene's won't advertise in his newspaper and urged African-Americans to boycott the department store.
Cohee presented some data that helps explain why Huffman did not see many black faces when she first visited Boston. Boston's population is 25 percent African-American, according to the most recent Census figures. But African-Americans own only 2.2 percent of Massachusetts businesses. Unemployment levels among blacks in Massachuetts are the highest of any other minority group at 9.8 percent.
The state's all-white, all-male congressional delegation is jockeying to replace Kerry, should he win the White House in November. Meanwhile, Wilkerson, the state senator who convened the weekend conference, "21st Century Black Massachusetts," is the highest-ranking elected African-American politician in the Commonwealth.
"We have some really, really smart people," said Cohee. But intelligence is not translating to positions of power and influence in the city's business and political structure. Why? "We've been handled," he told the audience. "We were never able to use our force and power to compel investment."
Here's one white woman's interpretation of what Cohee means: Black Boston is too easily placated by white Boston and does not help itself. Black Boston willingly lets white politicians like Kerry use its churches for convenient photo opportunities. A few African-American professionals deemed acceptable are invited into the white power loop; the price is complicity in maintaining the status quo.
White Boston also takes care of black Boston by putting the best and brightest in charge of the city's nonprofit community. Running the Red Cross or the United Way provides a nice paycheck and pleasant evenings on the town for a good cause, but no real power. People who run nonprofits are basically begging people with money to share the wealth. Politicians have little incentive to respond to African-American constituent demands, because African-Americans in Boston do not turn out in large numbers to vote. Not enough African-Americans hold office to make a difference.
None of this will change in any substantive way between now and July. Symbolic gestures are nice and even well-intentioned, but real change first requires a willingness to face reality and a refusal to be complacent about it.
Boston is what it is. The residents, whatever their skin color, know the score.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
