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Racist at Downtown Crossing

Transit Police report on the incident:

On January 8, 2019 at approximately 10:20AM Transit Police officers assigned to the Central District received a radio call to respond to the MBTA's DTC Orange Line platform for a report of an MBTA employee being harassed by an unknown party. Upon arrival officers met with an MBTA employee, who is African American, and relayed the following: while on the Orange Line north bound platform he (employee) observed a white male standing dangerously close to the yellow line. The employee concerned for the male's safety advised him to stand back so he would be a safe distance from the right of way. The male responded by shouting a racial epithet and behaving in a disruptive and disorderly manner towards the employee. The employee then requested Transit Police respond. The male fled prior to TPD arrival.

Officers conducted an area search but were unable to locate the male. The incident will be further investigated.

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Comments

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The actions described here depend on people turning away and doing nothing. We must be vigilant and consistent in stamping out this sort of hate.

Getting rid of this sort of behavior means See Something Say Something.

Thanks to the Good Reverend for speaking up.

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Because I know that a lot of very good people are going to outlive that (expletive).

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Like this is exclusively or especially a Boston issue. I'm so sick of people trotting out this tired trope whenever an individual *sshole from the area does something repugnant like this. She owes us an apology.

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You clearly lack the intellectual ability to really understand what she meant? Ask your parents for that apology.

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this isn't even a good troll job.

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I like the part where you're more concerned with Boston's (bad) image being besmirched than a POC being assaulted and called horrific things.

Keep on Bostoning, Boston.

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"...whenever an individual *sshole from the area does something repugnant like this..."

Keep on Steeve-ing, Steeve.

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Where you care far less about someone attacking another person than you do about some "reputation" that is already very bad?

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Will do.

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Racism sucks. It’s a pretty shitty feeling knowing that some backward thinking people think I’m inferior or less than because of the color of my skin.

That said, as a Latino, I’m FAR more worried about experiencing racism in other parts of the country than Boston. I’ve experienced it here, yes. But I’ve experienced it all the other places of the US that I have visited.

This is an American problem.

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I won't for a second discount your experience, as it's not mine to criticize. I certainly don't have the same issues, nor will I (though for my Latina wife and (future) children it may be a different story). I just think, for an allegedly liberal city, we are insanely segregated. Years ago I was dating a black woman from Brazil, and she immediately asked why there were no other POC at a restaurant in the middle of the city. It was tough to explain. It can't be random.

I have lived in East Boston since 2012, and I have become very close to the Colombian community, more than a handful that were in the first wave to EB in the early 1980s. Just hearing their stories of elderly immigrants being beat up by packs of teenagers in the early 1990s (there was a particularly brutal incident involving local youths and Vietnamese immigrants), to the Colombian family who I purchased my home from describing how the Italian owner of (now) Condor Market used to intentionally lock them out of the easement into their back yard, to restaurants refusing to sell any Latin American beers (there are still some that don't) so they would never enter their restaurants. To this day take a stroll to East Boston Open Discussion and see all the horrible racist and xenophobic comments from the EB lifers (and search for Carlos Rosales stories of all of the times he was attacked), who no doubt grew up during this. What that article completely buries is there were cameras there (I am trying to find the video--it was circulating about a year ago), and they caught these students screaming racial epithets as part of their "protest". Ironic given most are Sicilian with black and Arab blood.

That said, I'm willing to let people like Howard Bryant and Michael Che have their voices heard when they talk about how racist the city is. Say what you will about Boston as a whole, but East Boston is SUPER racist.

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... is from the asshole who assaulted and spat on the MBTA employee.

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The only apology needed is from the asshole who assaulted and spat on the MBTA employee.

For the act of spitting on the MBTA employee and hurled a racial insult at her? Yes.

For the fact that this individual, however messed up in the head, felt free to do that? No.

A lotta us white folks do need to apologize, at the very least, because (in the words of the liturgy from my old church) "we have not done those things that we ought to have done". And we need to do better. Otherwise, it's weaksauce to look at an old white dude using the n-word and say, "My gosh, where did that come from?"

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Dear Rev. Please don't loop everyone into your skewed vision of what Boston is. Clearly this mainiac on the MBTA today is a racist - and a complete scumbag. This behavior should always be denounced. But when people say something like "dammit boston" so they can virtue-signal to their activist followers (while throwing an entire city under the bus) they weaken their message, and sound downright unintelligent doing so.

So woke. Not.

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She would've moved a long time ago. That she's so shocked shows she thinks enough of Boston that this incident really stands out.

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But when people say something like "dammit boston" so they can virtue-signal to their activist followers (while throwing an entire city under the bus) they weaken their message, and sound downright unintelligent doing so.

And when people pretend that Boston doesn't have a national reputation as a racist city, they sound incredibly ignorant.

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Agreed. Whenever someone says that Boston "has changed" and isn't that racist, I ask them to read the Boston Globe's excellent Spotlight on the topic:

http://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/boston-racism-image-reality/series...

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You're from Boston, therefor you're a racist.

You're from Mississipi, therefor you're married to your sister.

You're from China, therefor you eat dogs and cats.

You're from Mattapan/East Boston/Lawrence/Mission Hill, therefor you're a drug dealing, gun-running, kid-murdering, half-literate gang member.

Treat people like they're their own people, not like they're the embodiment of every bad thing any one of their neighbors ever did.

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If you don't actually understand what the rest of us are talking about, there's no obligation to post.

You're from Boston, therefor you're a racist.

You're from Mississipi, therefor you're married to your sister.

You're from China, therefor you eat dogs and cats.

You're from Mattapan/East Boston/Lawrence/Mission Hill, therefor you're a drug dealing, gun-running, kid-murdering, half-literate gang member.

Treat people like they're their own people, not like they're the embodiment of every bad thing any one of their neighbors ever did.

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Her intention with the wording "dammit Boston" was to further her own view of Boston as a racist city. I fully commend her for telling the police - the racist POS here should be arrested for assault (and called out for it). But posting it on twitter with that wording is 1000% virtue-signaling. Nothing more. Progress will never be made toward building bridges when you have people literally throwing an ENTIRE CITY under the bus for the actions of some racist nut on the MBTA.

And pointing to a Boston Globe article as proof is foolish. The Globe? Puh-leash. A bunch of people who live in the wealthy burbs and send their kids to private schools telling people who actually live in Boston that they need more diversity.

When people are 100 percent focused on the problems of the past like this lady, they will never see (or help to create) the solutions for a better future.

Be kind to each other - do the best you can, and move forward.

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Your post is 100% avoiding the real problem.

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"I made this money, you didn't" - Diverse Bostonian Bobby Brown

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How about if we go, say, five full years with absolutely no racist idiots assaulting or insulting a person of color? Would that be enough to overcome this reputation?

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Is this a trick question?

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How about if we go, say, five full years with absolutely no racist idiots assaulting or insulting a person of color? Would that be enough to overcome this reputation?

No? Not actively being racist isn't actually a fix for a racist past. It is merely acquiescence to modern decency.

Of course you don't give a shit about the answer to your bullshit hypothetical.

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Are you up for a Nobel Prize in Physics that you're not telling the rest of us about?

It's not possible to fix the past. If I steal from you today, I cannot unsteal from you tomorrow.

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If I steal from you today, I cannot unsteal from you tomorrow.

And yet, so far.

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Let's address the rampant racism occurring in Boston right now.

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Boston is, always and forever, irredeemably racist. Not just the racist Bostonians who commit hate crimes,but everybody who lives here. Hell, probably the entire metropolitan area. Thanks for clearing that up!

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Boston is, always and forever, irredeemably racist. Not just the racist Bostonians who commit hate crimes,but everybody who lives here. Hell, probably the entire metropolitan area. Thanks for clearing that up!

If you don't understand the subject under discussion, you're not obliged to post.

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she saw a guy on a moped mug a woman the night before last! CRAZY!!!!

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Are we supposed to know this woman? She goes around keeping track of all this?

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Someone went a little twitter trawling.

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The beaner is sure a world classy city

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fyi, beaner is considered a slur to Mexicans. This was recently brought to the attention of Will Shortz, editor of the NYT crossword puzzle, when it was the answer for a clue about baseball. I had never known it to be a slur, but apparently it is commonly used as that by people who live in Mexican border states.

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Learn something new everyday. I was just using it a stupid name for Boston.

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How about “Beantownland” a la New Kids on the Block?

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The MBTA could put an end to this argument by arresting the person and charging him with a hate crime. They should also provide a link that reports how many hate crimes were reported on the MBTA and Keolis this past year. I believe they are mandated just as cities and towns are to list all hate crimes that happen on MBTA property.

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Was on a Turtleboy Sports blog earlier this year for some other racial incident. Just seems like trying to get attention to herself. I doubt this happened.

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I actually know her (not well, but well enough), so I am going to believe her over them every single time.

Especially because, if you doubt her, you're now also doubting Transit Police, who have since posted an account (which I've included in the original post) confirming what she wrote.

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and I doubt you are Bugs Bunny.

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Yes. She's trying to bring attention to a serious and enduring social problem. It is called racism.

Perhaps a trip to the library and some books on how Ministers Getting People To Pay Attention To Racism has an extremely long history in these parts. Like 200+ years.

You simply cannot read the incredibly narcissistic Turdboy Splortz and then complain that someone they don't like is the one trying to get attention.

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Will those same history books tell of the abolishonist movement that was started/centered here? Or of the proud MA54th regiment? Try as you might to further your view of Boston as a racist backwater, we have made tremendous strides to promote equality (not only for race relations, but also in gay rights) as a city.

Your snarky comments focus on the past. And worse, position the ramblings of some racist loser on the MBTA as a representative of an entire city. "Oh thats just Boston being Boston". Really? If it so racist here then fucking move - if you even live in Boston.

Of course people should try to overcome institutional racism in our country. It's a battle that we must ALL take on. And there is SO much work to be done. But always focusing on the negative, and broad-brushing entire groups of people (or cities in this case) to get points with your woke cronies is just lame - and very counter-productive.

Adam just posted about yet another shooting in Mattapan (continued violence so horribly impacting Boston's minority population). Where is your outrage for these horrible events that are causing far more damage to our city (and minority communities) than some lunatic racist on the MBTA. Why are you not calling out young black men on UHUB and demading they stop killing other innocent black men? Are the 58 murders in Boston last year not a larger problem that a loser racist guy on the T?

Newsflash, that post will get like 1 comment, because people like you and the reverand don't want to point out that gun violence in the inner city is a far bigger issue than your narrative of "racist Boston". People are dying and it barely raises a blip. But some racist nut goes off and people come out of the woodwork to call the entire city of Boston racist - many of whom are not even from here and wouldn't be able to find Cleary or Codman Squares on a map.

Get some perspective and channel your energy toward good, and the real issues impacting our city, not the tweet of a person virtue-signaling to their social media followers.

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Will those same history books tell of the abolishonist movement that was started/centered here? Or of the proud MA54th regiment?

Sorry to disappoint you, but we're talking about Boston as it exists today, not two centuries ago.

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Correct - Boston as it exists today. If you have a base knowledge of the history of Boston, you will know that we have come leaps and bounds ahead of where the city was (far more than other cities). By focusing on the past and perpetuating the narrative of Boston as an epicenter of racism in the US (via broad-brush generalizations), you are counter-productive and just incorrect.

yes, Boston like many cities across the country has work to do in removing/undoing institutional (and overt) racism - as a city and population. We all need to step up.

But when social justice warriors take ANY instance of racism (or perceived racism) and label the entire city racist, it just a lame approach. Even people who work every day to better themselves (and work to overcome institutional racism) can see right through BS virtue-signaling.

The problem is that unintelligent, or informed people see it and either get offended (which is counter-productive), or further a false narrative to their "woke" networks.

But go ahead, keep walking around ready to go nuts on twitter or in chat rooms, keep living under a veil of guilt - and seeking racism in everything. I'll be out engaging with my neighbors (all races), teaching my kids about kindness and respect for their fellow americans, and always working to be a better version of myself.

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... when social justice warriors ...

Yawn. Choose another record, will you?

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I've included it in the original post.

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No one should have to be treated in such a way...anywhere. not at work, not at home or at school. If we turn our heads, change the topic or refuse to understand, we are part of the problem

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You can teach everyone how the appropriate response is to gang up on people who say nasty things to other people. That can't ever cause problems. Even better that the jackass got physical here, so let's not be satisfied with calling the cops on him, let's get in on the fun before the cops come.

/sarc

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Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

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