The Boston Red Sox dealt with backlash and addressed it, but their fans are a part of the problem. They wanted to do a good deed and stand with those whose voices are not being heard. They also want to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement throughout their baseball season. A fan tweeted “BLM vision is not about black lives, it’s about tearing down the country to replace it with some gobblygook ideas,”. There is always going to be different opinions all around, but the Boston Red Sox did what they thought was right in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
"The George Floyd effect; Black Lives Matter." The Economist, 12 Dec. 2020, p. 29(US). Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A644479772/ITOF?u=mlin_c_fitchcol&sid=ITOF&xid=0d023984.
Simkins, Chris. 'Black Lives Matter' Movement Seeks Reforms to End Police Brutality. Federal Information & News Dispatch, LLC, Washington, 2015. ProQuest,https://fitchburgstate.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.fitchburgstate.idm.oclc.org/reports/black-lives-matter-movement-seeks-reforms-end/docview/1752211437/se-2?accountid=10896.
Smith, Deyscha. Sam Kennedy Explained the 'Black Lives Matter' Billboard Outside Fenway Park. 23 July 2020,www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2020/07/23/sam-kennedy-response-black-lives-matter-billboard-fenway-park.
Asmelash, L. (2020, July 23). The Boston Red SOX put up a Black Lives matter billboard over the Massachusetts Turnpike. Retrieved April 02, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/us/boston-red-sox-black-lives-matter-trnd/index.html
Rose, Jordan. “Boston Fans Called Out Over Racist Comments Following Red Sox Black Lives Matter Banner.” Complex, Complex, 23 July 2020, www.complex.com/sports/2020/07/boston-fans-called-out-over-racist-comments-red-sox-black-lives-matter-banner.
Another great story from after the bombing was Carlos Arredondo. Many people may know him as the cowboy hat man from a photo of him helping someone taken right after the bombs went off. Arredondo ran in and helped the injured like the man he helped in the photo. He was seen assisting to push a man with both legs blown off in the blast in a wheelchair away from everything to get help. This act of kindness is unlike anything you can do for a person. The man injured was completely unable to move and had to rely on someone to bring him to help, and Arredondo was that person. Arredondo had already lost two sons, one to war and one to suicide; he knew he could not stand back and watch. According to an article, “he saw the frightened eyes of Jeff Bauman, a young man whose legs had been blown off below the knees. Where once were shins, ankles and feet, now there were only protruding bones. It was a ghastly sight” (Mayo). Carlos then made a tourniquet from a piece of a sweater on one leg as another person does the other leg. Carlos didn’t even know Bauman's name nor did he know the other person who was helping save him. One thing they did have in common was they knew what needed to be done to help people and that showed a sense of unity in the Boston community. The unity of people in Boston right after the bombings was a beautiful sight because we saw that many are willing to help each other out that much.
Unity is what keeps a community together. Without unity a community would be separated and the ability to work together doesn’t exist. I believe that after the bombings all of Boston was joined as a whole. All needed physical and emotional help, and many did whatever they could to provide it. After the bombings we saw many acts of kindness from the community and visitors to Boston. It didn’t matter what kind of person they were, where they came from, because all had the same idea to help the injured. That is what united Boston, the sense of heroic instinct and the thought to help anyone that needed it.
Colbert, Annie. “10 Touching Acts of Kindness at the Boston Marathon.” Mashable, 16 Apr. 2013, mashable.com/2013/04/16/boston-marathon-acts-of-kindness/.
Mayo, Michael. “Fame In A Flash: The Carlos Arredondo Story.” South Florida Sun Sentinel, 15 Apr. 2013, interactive.sun-sentinel.com/bostoncarlos/.
The Seville Cathedral, located in Seville, Spain, is one of the largest religious buildings in the world. Now a Christian cathedral, this structure has a diverse religious history. The building was founded in 1403 on the site of a former mosque. The structure has five naves which make it the largest Gothic building in Europe. The style of architecture of the entire building, mudéjar, is unique to and originates in Spain. This art style embodies the meeting of Islam and Christianity and the stages of history in the city, which is visible in the structure of the cathedral. Mudéjar is the term given to Muslims who continued to practice their religion in areas which had come under Christian possession during the Reconquest of 1248. The promotion of peaceful coexistence between Christians, Muslims, and Jews allowed for the construction and prosperity of the cathedral and also contributed to the complexity of the structure. The site of the Seville Cathedral was declared a “World Heritage” in 1987 by UNESCO because of its unique architectural style and because the structure is the largest Gothic edifice in Europe.
The African Meeting House in Boston, Massachusetts was consecrated in 1806, housing the first African Baptist Church of Boston. It is the oldest black church building in America. This building served as a cultural, educational, and political connection for Boston’s black community. The building committee for this building consisted of two branches: financial and labor. The labor branch mainly consisted of African-American craftsmen. The African Meeting House offered education opportunities for both children and adults. The African-Americans which made up the first congregation of this church established a sanctuary for peaceful worship and school that would support African-American education. The first abolition organization, Massachusetts General Colored Association, met here. In 1832, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded here by William Lloyd Garrison. The African Meeting House also served as a recruitment center for the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Regiment, which was the first official African-American military regiment for the Union in the Civil War. In 1898, the African Meeting House was sold to a Jewish Congregation and was a synagogue until it was later acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1972.
Both structures are places which promote peaceful religious coexistence and provide a gathering place for this coexistence. As demographics and cultures changed in Spain and Boston, these buildings changed as well. The Seville Cathedral’s architecture changed as different groups possessed power in the region, demonstrating a unique architectural style: mudéjar. The African Meeting House served as a church, school, and meeting house and was later utilized as a synagogue. The mudéjar style reflects the integration of Islamic and Christian influence on the construction of the building. The African Meeting House was occupied by diverse religious groups as the Seville Cathedral was, first as a Baptist Church then later a synagogue. The Seville Cathedral first existed as a mosque and then later as the Seville Cathedral. Both the Seville Cathedral and the African Meeting House are multifunctional religious buildings which promote acceptance of diverse cultures and histories.
The Ministry of Culture and Sport. “Mudéjar Art.” Spain is Culture, SEGITTUR, http://www.spainisculture.com/en/estilos/mudejar/.
Museum of African American History. “A Gathering Place for Freedom.” Museum of African American History, https://www.maah.org/exhibits_detail/A-Gathering-Place-for-Freedom.
National Historic Landmarks Program. “African Meeting House.” National Historical Landmarks Program, National Park Service, https://web.archive.org/web/20090606132718/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1069&ResourceType=Building.
National Park Service. “African Meeting House.” National Park Service, 23 Dec. 2015, https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/amh.htm.
Seville Cathedral. “World Heritage.” Catedral De Sevilla, artiSplendore, https://www.catedraldesevilla.es/la-catedral/patrimonio-de-la-humanidad/.
UNESCO. “Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville.” UNESCO, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/383/.
“The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown, but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings for freedom.”
Famous words written by the infamous African-American author and poet Maya Angelou. While looking at the beautiful carving of the Nubian girl on the mirror holding that bird, one can be reminded of those very words. Wondering to yourself if you are the caged bird or the free bird. Whether you are African-American or Caucasian-American or any other type of American, you can ask yourself, are you living a caged life or a free one? However as a person of color the chances of you living the free one are slim. Eyes gazing up to the mirror itself you wonder. If you look in it, what will you see? Will you see him? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Will you see a person of color that makes him proud? That makes him think he died for a good cause? Will the person you are today, right now, be a person he would be glad to die for? Or do you forget where you come from? Do you choose to bury your head in the sand while others suffer? Do you think “oh, it’s not my problem” as you live your Anglo-Saxon life with your Anglo-Saxon friends? Do you remember what he died for or just enjoy the day off of work in January? Being a person of color in 2018 can be difficult. You gaze in mirrors daily, hoping to see the strength of MLK, Jr., and the wisdom of Maya Angelou shining out from behind your eyes. You hope to be the free bird that thinks of nothing but “breezes, and fat worms, and writing his name on the sky.” But if you are that caged bird, the one who doesn’t remember anything more than the first few sentences of “I Have A Dream,” maybe you look in this mirror again and remember.
Demby, Gene. “How Black Americans See Discrimination.” National Public Radio, 25 Oct. 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/10/25/559015355/how-black-americans-see-discrimination.
Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, lifts her hands in victory or in challenge. This ancient queen led her people against Rome, even managing to sack and burn Londinium at the heart of Roman Britain. This rebellion had followed Rome’s betrayal of her late husband’s will, which had named the Roman Emperor as well as Boudicca’s daughters as his heirs in an effort to keep the peace. After suffering a flogging and the rape of her daughters, Boudicca began a campaign of revenge which did not end until 80,000 Romans were killed and many Roman cities sacked and burned. Her statue in modern-day London now stands as a reminder of her legend and bravery.
Much closer to home in the South End of Boston, there stands a memorial to another brave woman. The Harriet Tubman Memorial, also known as Step on Board, honors a woman who showed a different kind of bravery. Nicknamed “Moses” for her work in the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman not only escaped herself, but led roughly 300 slaves to freedom over the course of ten years. Neither Harriet nor any she helped escape were recaptured. This was all accomplished while suffering from a head injury which caused sleeping spells from which she could not be awakened. Her statue shows her holding a Bible in front of those she led to safety depicted on a vertical slab. On the back there are various quotes from Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, and Sarah Bradford. There is also a map depicting stops on the Underground Railroad.
Both Boudicca and Harriet Tubman are immortalized in bronze in the heart of two cities that each played an important role in their lives. They faced tremendous odds in order to lead their people to freedom and safety from tyranny, and their courage still inspires us today.
“Facts: Harriet Tubman.” Harriet Tubman Historical Society, www.harriet-tubman.org/facts/.
“Step on Board/Harriet Tubman Memorial.” Boston.gov, Boston Art Commission, 26 June 2019, www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/boston-art-commission.
Lauf, Cornelia. “Locating William Kentridge's Massive Mural in the Roman Landscape.” Hyperallergic, 21 Apr. 2016, hyperallergic.com/292807/locating-william-kentridges-massive-mural-in-the-roman-landscape/.
LaManche, Liz. “Connected by Sea: Boston’s 1000-Ft Tattoo.” Dock Tattoo Project, http://earthsign.com/docktattoo/. Accessed 5 May 2018.
Shao, Yiqing. “East Boston Pier Is Getting Public Art ‘Tattoos’.” Boston Magazine, 27 Aug. 2014, www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-08/12/dock-tattoo-project-east-boston-harborarts-pier/.
Tomrankinarchitect. “William Kentridge's Triumphs and Laments.” TRA_20, 7 July 2017, tomrankinarchitect.com/2016/07/william-kentridges-triumphs-and-laments/.