Before an audience filled with ‘Haitians and Latinos, Blacks and Whites,’ Mayor Thomas Menino joined several civic organizations at Faneuil Hall Wednesday to launch the new City-Wide Dialogues program, which will begin in December.
The program is a series of talks meant to stimulate discussion and foster understanding between different ethnic groups throughout Boston, according to Jeff Stone, the group’s co-chair.
‘Many of you work on ensuring business prosperity, strong neighborhoods and good education,’ Stone told an audience of several hundred civic leaders and Boston residents. ‘When we understand and respect our fellow Bostonians of all ethnic groups, our city can do better.’
‘Everybody talks about race, but very few talk about it in a mixed group where real progress can be made,’ he said.
City-Wide Dialogues co-chair Gisele Michel said the discussions are planned to take place in 20 neighborhoods across Boston and will allow residents to discuss ‘what it means to be a Bostonian … in a candid fashion.’ After the discussions are done, Stone said participants will come together and propose solutions ‘to lingering problems of race.’
The city’s history is enough to explain the new program’s importance, Menino said.
‘As a person who’s lived in the city all his life, I’ve seen the high points and low points,’ Menino said.
Menino recalled 1974, when he said racial hostilities in Boston were at a peak and attempts to integrate schools failed.
‘Kids were against kids,’ he said. ‘Rocks were thrown against buses. Those were tough days because there was no dialogue between people of different neighborhoods.’
Menino went on to describe the evolution of the racial landscape of Boston, a city that is now a ‘majority-minority’ city, in which minorities outnumber whites. One in four residents of Boston are born outside of the United States, and 140 languages are spoken in the city.
‘We’ve made a lot of gains, but we still have a lot of problems,’ Menino said. ‘No one should be shut out because they speak another language or because of the color of their skin or because of their economic background.’
‘We will be a city that understands the differences among us,’ he said.
Darnell Williams, CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, praised City-Wide Dialogues because the series was not fueled by a crisis.
‘Before, if there was a flashpoint like a shooting or racial incident in the city, we would hold a contentious dialogue,’ Williams said. ‘Today we come not because of a flashpoint but an inspiration. That means Boston has changed.’
Salma Kazmi, assistant director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center and a member of the committee holding the discussion series, also spoke at the event, saying the program hits home for Muslims especially.
‘The Muslim community has had to confront racism in a way it has never had to do before,’ Kazmi said. The best way to diminish discrimination is ‘through one-on-one conversation and deep personal relationships,’ she said.
A series of four discussions, held in groups of 20 with diverse participants from all over Boston, will start in December and end in June, according to the City-Wide Dialogues website. The group hopes to bring 1,000 people to these discussions.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has donated approximately 300 advertising spaces to the program, according to MBTA General Manager Michael H. Mulhern.
‘We’re helping to get the word out,’ he said.
According to Mulhern, the MBTA decided to contribute to the program because ‘the MBTA is a big part of the community of Boston.’
‘You can’t drive past a mural here without seeing an MBTA car or employee,’ he said, calling the institution ‘part of the fabric of Boston.’
Community leaders agreed that the dialogues will be a way for Boston to lose its reputation as a city filled with racial conflict. Many speakers spoke of an evolved city.
‘This is the Boston that recognizes it has a way to go,’ said Nicolas Carballeira, a Tufts University School of Medicine professor.
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