Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is putting race issues front and center as the nation reels from a divisive election, and as the mayor himself prepares his own campaign for a second term.
Walsh launched a series of public discussions on race in Boston Saturday at a filled downtown theater. Walsh’s administration expects a year-long series of public talks “aimed at bringing small, facilitated conversations about racism, healing and policy work out into all of the neighborhoods of Boston.”
“There’s no question about that during conversations we’re going to be talking about policing, we’re going to be talking about brutality, we’re going to be talking about diversity, we’re going to be talking about every other aspect of race that’s going to be out there, but it is, again, about healing a city,” Walsh said from the stage of Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theater
A coalition of organizations, including the group 100 Resilient Cities, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Emerson College are sponsoring the events.
Walsh has emphasized that city policy will be on the table during these talks, increasing the odds of the conversations moving beyond identifying the problems Boston faces, and yielding substantive changes that would be felt in the community.
In an appearance on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio Friday, Walsh said launching the dialogues now is “the perfect timing, after this presidential election,” when the nation’s divisions are on citizen’s minds.
The timing of a year-long emphasis on racial issues is also perfect for the city’s own electoral calendar, as the series’ final days will coincide with next November’s mayoral election.
The mayor’s examination of race in his city - the first since Mayor Kevin White’s attempt in 1976 - takes place during a campaign to re-energize the multiracial coalition that aided his victory in 2013.
One young black woman spoke about creating more government recommendations or rules about how businesses serve customers and suggested the city pursue discrimination audits of businesses whose clientele does not adhere to the diversity of Boston’s population.
“If you want people to change, you have to create change by creating laws, then people will catch up,” the woman said.
Walsh admits that for the conversations to succeed and result in effective policy, he and his administration need to engage not just activists who will voluntarily give a Saturday morning over to racial dialogue, but other residents, especially whites, who may acknowledge racial tension but lack a fuller understanding of minority experiences.
Roxanna Myhrum, of Cambridge, said she works in Boston and even as a white woman, fears the police.
“I really hope that these conversations will address the issues and break the tension around the discussion around police brutality, around violence, the body cameras, the 'Black Lives Matter’ signage versus 'All Lives Matter’.... I want to give you whatever encouragement I have as a citizen to go there as a leader even though it’s going to be difficult.
Walsh told Myhrum that Boston Police officers will be a part of many of the discussions he plans to have.
