Southie Stalwart

To the Editors of The Crimson:

As a lifelong resident of the City of Boston, I was offended by the recent article in What Is To Be Done, "Southie Solipsisms." The article stereotyped South Bostonians as a bunch of racist, ignorant derelicts and perpetuated the misconceptions concerning a strong, vibrant community. My letter is not an attempt to whitewash the racial violence that has occurred in South Boston but instead to criticize anyone who seeks to rubber-stamp communities or people as belonging to a certain mold.

This article emphasized the worst elements of Southie and ignored the positive factors that give rise to a tightly-knit community. The authors failed to comment on such things as the extremely high electoral turnout that the politically active people of South Boston continually demonstrate. Strong community and religious involvement keep this neighborhood alive. If this style of journalism had been written about a black community, it would have been justly labelled as racist in that it stereotyped a community. The only difference is that Messrs. deMilo and Levenson are stereotyping a white working-class community instead of a black working-class community.

People are shaped by their environments and articles such as "Southie Solipsisms" serve to present a deceptive narrow viewpoint of a community that is unknown to the majority of the Crimson's readers. Articles like these serve to prolong the ignorance of the American people to the environments of inner-city residents and to an understanding of their actions. A couple of years ago the Boston Globe ran a series of articles on the communities of Boston and I highly recommend Messrs. deMilo and Levenson research these articles before they continue their journalistic reviews of Boston's neighborhoods. Andrew Johnson '80