White Supremacists Marched Through Downtown Boston Last Weekend

By Keith Reed, The Root

The city wants the rest of the world to think it’s changed over the years. Racists in masks aren’t helping that cause.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was scheduled to meet with law enforcement this morning after an organized group of as many as 100 masked white supremacists marched through the city’s downtown on Saturday, assaulting a Black man along the way.

The meeting, especially Wu’s presence and strong condemnation of the racists— who are believed to be members of the hate group Patriot Front—illustrates the long attempts to rehabilitate Boston’s reputation. Boston has struggled for decades to shed a reputation as especially racist, highlighted by a violent response over forced integration and busing at some of the city’s public schools, as well as by testimonials from Black athletes of racist taunts and poor treatment by white fans.

Boston also helped propel Massachusetts’ first Black governor, Deval Patrick, into office in 2004 and whose last two mayors, Wu and predecessor Kim Janey, have been women of color (although Janey, a Black woman, ascended from city council rather after her predecessor, Marty Walsh decamped to the Biden Administration in Jan. 2021; Wu was elected in November). Boston as been majority nonwhite since the early 2000s by the U.S. Census Bureau’s count.

Wu, who is Asian-American, tweeted on Saturday that the march was “disgusting” and called out the participants as cowards.

This march leaves some with questions about the leeway given to white supremacists.

Jim Crow may be over, but white supremacy isn’t. Unfortunately, these actions fit right in with American violence.

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