Response to Benjamin's comment on Grambo's "Cab in Boston" post

I don't know about that. I would say racist city. Obviously a city cannot keep racist people out of it, so like you said racist people live there. However, the ethnic enclaves in which the article Grambo posted describes, are pretty bad. You can take the T in Boston and go from a relatively safe college neighborhood and in 20 minutes be in an extremely dangerous, poverty stricken community. And the difference between Boston and New York in that manner is that in Boston you can tell the difference by the cleanliness of the stations. In New York, they're all dirty... besides the ones with heavy traffic like Times Square which gets cleaned daily.

The mind of a racist can also exclude celebrities and athletes. Big Papi and KG can be their favorite ball players and they can still turn right around and call you a nigger.

Also all people can try to pull a fast one; it is not an inherently black thing to try to not pay a taxi driver. In this instance, I don't blame the taxi drivers. As a people, I mean American people this time, we have been flooded with thoughts of blacks being dangerous, evil, stupid criminals. Check out Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, (Grambo's reading it right now). It goes into our unconscious first thoughts in particular situations such as accessing personalities.

I don't know how we go about handling this situation or racism in general for that matter.


That's why I let white girls get me taxis.

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Here's Grambo's original post below. Read more!

Can a brother get a cab in Boston?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: I was in Boston last weekend for a wedding. I haven't spent too much time in Beantown, so I insisted that my friends and I go out the night before to experience the nightlife. We went to a pretty cool bar with a live band that was unbelievable. Everything seemed to be going our way, until roughly 1:30am. That was when the bar shut down. Being a native Tri-Stater, I didn't know what was happening. But it was "after last call, so you have to get the f- out" according to the friendly bartender. Perplexed, yet nonetheless satisfied with my night out, I looked forward to catching a cab back to my friend's place in Cambridge and getting a good night's sleep before the wedding. As I headed out of the bar, a black bouncer stopped me, gestured over to my white friends and said, "stick with them and you'll be alright." He played it off as a joke, but gave me a knowing glance as I left the bar.

Now the tricky part. I stood out on the street for a while trying to hail down a cab. Granted, there were hundreds of other Bostonians trying to do the same, but I noticed that many of the cabs were empty when the passed, and some even waved me and my friends off. This wasn't a one-time thing, nor did it only last a short period of time. We were wandering the streets for two hours trying to catch a damn cab. (Thank God for 7-11) Now, call it bad luck, call it what you will, but I don't think that two hours is acceptable under any rule (maybe Jim Crow...). And why did the bouncer feel the need to preface my cab search with those light-hearted yet strangely ominous words? I started to get mad. At Boston, at my friends, at my headache, at everything. It's the kind of thing you want to think doesn't happen anymore. But is Boston really a racist city? I dunno. The third whitest US Metropolitan area, in my opinion, has some work to do. What do you think?

Extended reading. Read more!