On Friday, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that a May 10 incident at the Museum of Fine Arts where students of color were subjected to racial profiling and racist language by museum staff and patrons is “unforgivable.”
“This incident, and it happens too often, they’re unforgivable, they’re unacceptable and a direct attack on everything we stand for as a city,” said Walsh during an interview with Boston Public Radio. “We have to do more [so] incidents like this don’t happen. There’s no excuse for that.”
The mayor said he was unaware of the incident until Thursday when asked about it during a press scrum, but followed up with a phone call with MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum, whom he spoke of positively. When asked how to rectify the fact that Boston has been accused by publications ranging from the Boston Globe to the Daily Show of being a racist city, the Walsh said he believes the answer lies in better workplace training and education.
Listen more: Ask The Mayor: 05/24/19
“All employees and all employers, just like now a lot of places [doing] sexual harassment training ... you need to take that same type of training and explain to people that when you’re an outward facing organization, and you have the public coming into the institution [you need to] have those dialogues,” Walsh said.
The MFA incident follows a series of incidents in recent weeks that have highlighted a lack of diversity in the city’s institutions. Earlier this month, the Boston Globe reported on four separate lawsuits that are underway alleging discrimination against women in the Boston Police Department. The same week, the city released data showing that of the $664 million awarded to contractors in the last year less than one percent was given to businesses owned and operated by women or people of color. In January, a report commissioned by the city and conducted by an independent firm also found there was a “male-dominant” culture in the Boston Fire Department.
Some like Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell say the lack of diversity in the city’s agencies, especially considering that Boston is a majority-minority city, has gone on for too long and city leadership needs to take the issue more seriously. Though she did not directly critique the mayor, Campbell did voice frustration that diversity is not a higher priority for the rest of the city’s leadership.
“To get the data that actually demonstrates that our police, fire and EMS are not reflective of the demographics of the city of Boston, I had to go through hurdles,” Campbell said. “So we just have a lot more work to do, and it's not enough to say we're doing the cadet program. ... We have to be bold and courageous.”
Walsh said that he hears the criticism and sympathizes with it, but takes issue with any critique that his office has not made diversity in the city’s public workforce a high priority. He said that some of the problem lies in that some reforms, such as establishing a cadet program focused on hiring and training more women for the Boston Fire Department, requires the approval of the state legislature, which can be a slow moving process.
“In the last five years, there’s not a day that goes by that we’re not talking about making sure our city government reflects the people of our city,” Walsh said. “We talk about it all the time.”
Nonetheless, Walsh acknowledged that Boston’s record on diversity is far from perfect. Though he did not speak to any specific policy reforms outside of pushing for the female focused cadet program at the BFD, he did say he is dedicated to the fixing the issue.
“[The MFA incident] tells a story that we need to do a better job, and I don’t think we’ve ever run away from the fact that I want to a better job, and we’re going to continue to do a better job,” Walsh said.
