I was interested to read in the Globe today that Chuck Turner talked about James Michael Curley at the hearing to expel him from city council yesterday.
Both Turner and Wilkerson have clearly used part of the Curley playbook–loudly invoke real ethnic grievances whenever caught with your hand in the cookie jar–but I have long wondered whether they were using other aspects of the Curley playbook as well.
Or, to put it more bluntly, are Turner, Wilkerson, and their pals using the Boston Irish model of providing class mobility to an ethnic group with the use of patronage and corruption?
There’s good reason to use this model: it worked. With the help of Curley-style corruption, the Irish in Boston rose from the poverty of three-deckers of Dorchester and Roxbury to the middle class entitlement of West Roxbury ranches with two SUV’s in the driveway.
White (and, okay, Irish) liberals like me are disgusted with Turner and Wilkerson for their cynicism and venality, but perhaps we should get off our high horse, since we occupy our position in this city because of the cynicism and venality of our none-too-distant ancestors.
Of course, the Curley playbook comes at a cost–when cronyism and connections dictate job opportunities, people in other ethnic groups are left out. I don’t have to explain what the Irish ascendancy did to other ethnic groups in this city, and if any non-African-American “people of color” are under the illusion that the Curley playbook will benefit them, they’d be wise to remember that Turner said Sonia Chang-Diaz was not a woman of color.
So what’s my conclusion? I guess maybe it’s this: Wilkerson, Turner, and their public sector cronies are indeed despicable and cynical. But if they are using the Curley playbook to try to help Boston’s African-American community, well, at least they’ve got a plan.
What’s yours?
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Curley shouldn’t have done what he did either, but there’s no reason for today’s Irish to feel guilty.
political hacks like Ray Flynn and Wacko Hurley get their backs up about statements like this from Chuck Turner: “the struggle of blacks is similar to the oppression the Irish endured under Yankee rule.
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p>’The law has been used to persecute the Irish in this very city,’ Turner said during a turbulent City Hall hearing that ended his 11-year run on the council. ‘That’s why they re-elected James Michael Curley when he was in jail. They knew the laws were controlled by the Yankees.'”
Right, two wrongs don’t make anything; today’s Irish don’t have to feel guilty but it wouldn’t hurt to have little empathy for others.
But this is just so. I find the offense taken by Flynn et al. to be silly in the extreme.
I don’t care about anybody feeling guilty. I’m saying that political corruption is a proven path to middle class success. If we’re going to denounce that path (as I do every time Turner or Wilkerson’s name comes up in my presence), maybe we have an obligation so suggest an alternate path.
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p>As the middle class beneficiary of other people’s corruption, I’m not so sure I can point fingers at other ethnic groups and tell them they have an obligation to stay poor but honest.
That the ascendancy of the Irish in the Boston area was a direct result of political cronyism. There is not doubt that this cronyism existed, and there is no doubt that the sons and daughters of Irish immigrants have improved their lot (at least financially), but there is not necessarily a cause and effect relationship. Let me suggest it was more the path of Joseph P. Kennedy, Boston Latin to Harvard to business, that had more to do with Irish financial ascendancy in this area. In other words, it was education, and ambition along with the connections that the Yankees had long had, that were the keys to success. Isn’t this the path of Patrick and Obama?
From Wikipedia’s Joseph P. Kennedy article:
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p>”P.J. Kennedy’s home was comfortable, thanks to his successful saloon business, investments, and an influential role in local politics.” (emphasis mine)
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p>But wikipedia has problems. Here’s The Straight Dope: Joseph P. Kennedy was the ambitious son of a prosperous Boston saloon keeper and ward boss. He married the mayor’s daughter… Emphasis mine again.
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p>Of course I wasn’t there, but it sounds to me like PJ being the beneficiary of political patronage helped pave the way for JPK’s more respectable path.
My great grandfather, the son of an Irish immigrant, dropped out of school in the third grade. He married a school teacher who taught him to read and write. Eventually, while working as a teamster he was asked to speak for them. He told them that if they wanted him to speak for them he needed to go law school. The teamsters paid for him to go to law school. My family’s oral hisotry includes stories of his wife packing two lunches for him as he worked all day and went to schook at night. Great grandfather went on to become a state representative and to send his son to Harvard University and Harvard Law School. I believe that my family and many others went from straight off the boat to middle class with the assistance of organized labor.
Thanks, Kate. It is important to remember that organized labor helped not just your family, but many many more to get out of poverty.
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p>Too bad it doesn’t really exist anymore, at least not at the scale and level of influence it used to have…
Advocate and legislate for policies that are inclusive and lift up ALL the residents of the city.
Like what?
…about increased services, better public education, equality under the law, but not being from Boston I’m hesitant to be more specific about what the City on the Hill needs.
The question was what kind of policies benefit everyone as opposed to a few, which leads some to engage in questionable activities to support their own.