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JP transplant to Roslindale discovers how they do politics in West Roxbury

Matt goes to his first Democratic ward caucus - held at the West Roxbury Pub:

Folks kept coming in as the big hand passed 12 on the clock, while city councilors (I counted four) circulated around the room, shaking hands and working magic. I made my way to the far back corner, where I found a place to stand between the end of a long table and the back exit. Admittedly, I wasn’t introducing myself to people. Being in the guts of Boston’s fabled Democratic party machine was overwhelming me, and I was admittedly distracted by a combination of the cultural value of the room, an almost total lack of any but white people, and little bets I was making with myself about who would start smoking first before everyone pulled out their packs of Pall Malls and began the process of tobacco-curing the entire delegation.

Also, he discovers Anna's Do-Nuts.

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Comments

Umm, there's more to people than their color. I'm sure in West Roxbury thatIrish-American Catholics are well represented amongst the "White people" this author complains. So tired of those who preach about diversity but fail to look beyond skin color.

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I'm also Irish American. We're white people.

No one said there is nothing to people but their color. It is a facet of people though, and in that room, it was a pretty across the board facet.

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what more does your post convey than WR = too many white people!

For Christ's sake, it's 2012, we have a black president that's about to win a second term. In the most recent city council race, Ayanna Pressley kicked serious ass.

I just don't get the fixation. West Roxbury is a perfectly fine, if boring, neighborhood. Your post is a gratuitous cheap shot.

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You should probably read the whole post before your head explodes. The ward isn't all white, so it was surprising to see only white people there. As mentioned in the post, I lived in JP for over a decade, so I'm used to a much more diverse and open caucus. Calm yourselves.

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You mean they SMOKE in West Roxbury? How can you stand it? Did you see any Nazi salutes?

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The bomb squad is outside my office and some Jeremy Renner lookalike is approaching in a cavalier manner.

Your commentary in this thread is disappointing because it distracts from the real issues. Stop trying to pigeon hole people and slap labels on them. The idea that JP>WR simply because it is more diverse is 20th century thinking, and it gets us nowhere. Is this how we are going to combat racism - by swinging the pendulum the other way so that the default opinion is that too white equals inferior? Do better.

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them. And whatever your particular problems are, friends, I promise you, MattMedia is not the least bit interested in solving them.

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Maybe read the whole post and not the one paragraph in a 1000 word essay that this page chose to repost.

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On the one hand, I want to try to get folks interested enough in another person's post that they might want to read it, so I often provide an excerpt. On the other hand, I don't want to post so much that they have no reason to click over to the original author's post. So, yes, definitely, read Matt's entire, relatively long, post before picking on him for just one paragraph.

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I'm certainly not complaining about the excerpt. It's an excerpt. They're not supposed to tell the whole story. They're supposed to hook.

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His lawyer is about to contact you over that last paragraph:

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them. And whatever your particular problems are, friends, I promise you, MattMedia is not the least bit interested in solving them.

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Good pick up. Pity that Matt Media was unable to see the humor from his mixed breed unicorn.

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...is pretty obvious, and I can certainly see how a transplant from multi-hued JP (and now Rosi, even more legitimately heterogenous, imo), might find it notable.

However, there's more diversity of thought and opinion in WR than one might expect from that sort of quick look (especially these days), and to his credit I think the blogger made that quite clear in the rest of his post.

I was especially heartened by the exchange he had with the fellow next to him on whether there should be pre-nomination speeches. That one paragraph sums up the whole spirit of caucus:

The man [moderating the event] said it was pretty clearly voted that we’d forego speeches. This caused some grumbling in the crowd. A man next to me, rugged and middle-aged with a beard, jeans and a sweatshirt, asked me “do you really want to hear all these speeches? We’ll be here all day!” I said I did because I didn’t know who these people were. To my surprise, he said, “ya. I guess you’re right. Well get your hand up higher then, make sure he sees ya.” He put up his hand, too.

(btw, congrats on being elected a delegate, Matt!)

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Great report and Congratulations! Regarding lack of racial diversity, the same might have been observed at a caucus in Mattapan or Chinatown.

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Discussion of me is notoriously inflammatory here.

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Why do you insist on resisting the broom?

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Hi Matt! Just a note that a group of us have begun organizing around the Elizabeth Warren campaign in West Roxbury, Roslindale and Hyde Park. Working with the Wards where we can and where it makes sense, but primarily keeping the focus on the race. Would love to have you involved if you have an interest. We actually have some volunteer events going on this weekend if you have time!

Check out: http://www.facebook.com/SoutheastBostonforWarren to learn more!

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