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Driving and renting while Black in eastern Mass.

Groveland, across the Merrimack from Haverhill, is one of those places you never hear about unless something awful happens there. Welcome to Groveland, where a white vigilante decided to chase after a black woman driving through the town - where she lives.

Meanwhile, a team of researchers at Suffolk University Law School and Analysis Group, Inc., with help from the Boston Foundation, report that, decades after such stuff became illegal, white brokers in the Boston area continue to discriminate against Blacks - often just refusing to deal with them at all.

Basically, they had a white person and a Black person apply for the same apartment, And, well:

Results indicate that White market-rate testers - meaning White testers not using vouchers - were able to arrange to view apartments 80% of the time. Similarly situated Black market-rate testers seeking to view the same apartments were only able to visit the property 48% of the time. ...

In addition, housing providers showed White market-rate testers twice as many apartment units as Black market-rate testers, and provided them with better service as measured by a number of different variables. The results also showed that testers who were offered a site visit by the housing provider received differential treatment at the visit based on race and voucher status.

The research also found considerable bias against people with housing vouchers, regardless of race.

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Comments

Seems like every few years, there's another story about racist discrimination in the real estate business. Nothing ever changes.

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$10 says this story will have more comments than the 3 proceeding shooting and stabbing stories combined.

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Do you feel better now?

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White fragility in all its feedlot scented glory.

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Karen, I’m not white.

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...on assimilating.

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you don't have to be white to exhibit white fragility. there's a saying that goes black men are the white people of black people.

i'm a black first generation american man, in case you have your twitter fingers ready.

so let me ask: what exactly do you think this article has to do with the shooting articles?

of course besides the fact that racist real estate and economic practices by both private and public entities going back decades led to the economic disparities that cause crime in the first place.

what besides that made you feel the need to compare?

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duplicate

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Strange how "oppressed males" now call anyone who calls them out on their fact-free bullshit "Karen".

Sorry, but that "title" is reserved for people like you who throw anti-mask tantrums and call the cops as their personal violent assault valets.

It does not apply to women who simply don't tolerate or support your irrational nonsense, regardless of your people colors crayon shade.

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Ok Karen.

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Sorry about you fave Reddit groups getting the ax.

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But she is not a Karen.

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Hi Ken

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Soros funds muggings....

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You have fuck all to say about those stories as well. Congratulations.

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... so hopefully the black persons being refused to rent in market-rate areas will be forced to live in the ghetto so they will eventually be shot or stabbed.

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Would even Jay Severin say hopefully?

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And what is there to say about most shooting stories?

On the other hand, many of us rent or have experienced the Boston rental market.

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Groveland went for Trump.

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A quick scan of FB shows that this dude is well known to the locals and is under criminal investigation by police for this latest stunt. Among other types of shunning and goading (such as parking legally in a space that he tantrums over, etc.)

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Are people who aren't cops but like to think they are.

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Shannon O'Brien was the Democratic nominee in the 2002 gubernatorial race. Incumbent Jane Swift had been asked to step aside, and Romney obligingly shoved her aside.

Romney would do a laughable campaign ad where he was collecting garbage as a sanitation worker would.

Romney was in a BLM protest this year.
I'll never forget his campaign pledge to "Lock 'em up!"
Fauci could have measured the amount of saliva shot forth by that utterance as he made hand gestures to emphasize his promise. Sister Souljah could have been bowled over 10 years earlier by Romney's declaration when Bill Clinton made his bona fides off of her to not be soft on crime.

So Trump carrying Groveland doesn't surprise me.
Realtors will assure me Ipswich is not Groveland. Is Groveland 44%C 46%T, Rowley42%C 46%T? Salisbury, Middleton and Saugus also went for Trump. https://www.wbur.org/news/2018/03/19/massachusetts-past-election-results

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That was more disjointed than a Trump tweet.

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Because you're afraid of a 21-year old woman.

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There are plenty of highly trained military folks and black belt marshal arts experts that age.

But I'm assuming that he is more afraid for his property value, even though that has been discredited and isn't an excuse to harass people anyway.

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...although it's martial arts.

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the same scenario happened to travyon martin. luckily this lady wasnt killed.

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In the past few years, I've seen a furious motorist scream the N-word at another motorist in Dedham, and I've seen a bicyclist scream the N-word at a taxi driver in Watertown. I'm not a person of color. My exposure to these kinds of racist attacks is limited.

Recently, my friends have been sharing stories about the racist shit that happens to them EVERY DAY in Massachusetts. Sometimes it's small things. "oh you have a weird name." "where are you from?" "will you braid my hair?" Sometimes it's security following you through a store. Sometimes it's scarier shit like this, where a racist shitbag is following you through a neighborhood, or someone is screaming the N-word at you.

Of the friends that have shared stories, every single one has been profiled or treated poorly by police... multiple times. Accused of stealing your own bike. Accused of stealing your own car. "We don't believe you." "Shut the fuck up."

It's not just the south. It's not just small towns. It's not just "trumpland."
Racism permeates Boston and all of Massachusetts. It is initiated by its people and perpetuated by its institutions, both public and private.

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Being accused of stealing your own bike. Truly a common theme and something white people will never know lol

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My wife gets You’re pretty for a black girl. A lot.
Or You speak so well..where did you grow up?

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I hear these stories about people using the N word and otherwise harassing black people and think, 'WTF? Who raised these white people who are saying these things?' How can you live and work in the world with attitudes like that?

It's tragic and ridiculous that these things are happening. As a white person to all black people who have experienced this, I am sorry and ashamed of this cruelty and these insults.

There are plenty of people who don't vote the way of this message board who work hard at being respectful of color.

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It's weird to think so, and particularly for a transplant to the Boston area, but there are enclaves, echo chambers where grievance is nurtured against Black people, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, you name it. If you don't stumble into one of those, it's very easy to believe that Boston and Massachusetts are the epitome of civility and tolerance. They are extremely insular, and I don't know a good way to open them up and let in some sunshine (the best disinfectant), but unless that happens, these boils will continue to fester.

I think that statements that "Boston" is racist are...not really false, but also insufficiently nuanced to be helpful. Racist Boston exists, and continues to exist, because the parts of Boston that consider themselves non-racist are insufficiently anti-racist.

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"The suburbs."

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...the name doesn't always fit. Many are small towns that are not suburbs by any sane definition; they were not created as bedroom communities, they've been there all along. And many are within metro areas. You can find plenty of these in Boston proper. But believe what you want.

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What I laugh at is the fake advertising for some many of the big developments for apts. Velo in JP (my new neighbor) has a big banner in front of it showing a smiling light skinned black man wearing a suit and carrying a bicycle to his new $1,995-for-a-studio residence. Whites and Asians see that as a safe black man to have as a neighbor and it also says we are inclusionary and don't discriminate. Come on people, advertising has got to be the biggest example of racism in modern day media. The reality is, WTF can REALLY afford those market rents? I know I can't. And I never miss a day of work at my humble job.

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