Couldn’t agree more. None of that is surprising to me; depressing, yes—but surprising, absolutely not. Mass likes to masquerade itself as some “liberal paradise” but the systems here can be so entirely fucked for so many people. It’s the smugness of some people here who act so haughty when speaking of other, more traditionally red states. People often bring up stats around the superiority of the Massachusetts public school system in relation to other places, for example. But if you peel back a few layers, you see how drastically different (read: worse) that public education can be based on what city/town you’re in or your zip code. It’s honestly exhausting trying to have these conversations with people who wear the rose-colored glasses and believe that this state is so superior.

I understand the sentiment but places like Massachusetts often ride high on the smug “we aren’t like those backwards states.” And in some regards, it’s true. But in others, we are no better than the backwoods good ole-boys of the Deep South…especially when it comes to the criminal justice system. Look at incarceration rates by race in this state and you can see a trend. For a state not necessarily known for its racial diversity, it sure does lock up a hell of a lot of black and brown people.

If you’re interested, there’s a great book called “When a Heart Turns Rock Solid” by Timothy Black that profiles the lives of three Puerto-Rican brothers who grew up in Springfield in the ‘80’s and ‘90s. It really pulls the curtain back on “liberal” Massachusetts and it’s garbage-ass policies that have truly decimated entire communities and generations of families.