Race

I think it's truly interesting to learn about something like racism that happened not only close to home in Boston, but all over America. When “forced housing” in Old Colony started to take place, the news said they were expecting a ‘blood-bath.”  Originally, Old Colony was mainly an area for white, Irish Americans. Considering all the racial tension that had been taking place earlier in the book, it was a big deal when the BHA and Mayor Flynn let blacks, Hispanics, and Asians move into the apartments of Old Colony. While there certainly was some tension in the beginning, it got to a point where black, white, and Hispanic mothers all sat together on the stoops watching their children playing. Ma even invited some Puerto Ricans over to the apartment but they didn’t understand a word she was saying and looked more scared of her than anything else. It's almost like once the different races were forced to live together they sort of stopped the racial war that was taking place, it was easier to just let go of any grudges and to live in peace.

I already talked about how in the last chapter of the book, white women welcomed black and Hispanic women to the vigil with open arms and that was something that really stood out to me. Earlier in the book, people couldn't overstep the boundaries into another neighborhood without getting beat up for being a different race than the one popular in that neighborhood. To see people put aside their differences and their lifetime of hate to grieve together says something loud and clear. It says that it gets to a point where you realize everyone is human, and there at that vigil everyone noticed that they weren't the only ones in Boston suffering after losing someone they loved.