Talk:Restore Our Alienated Rights

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I white flighted to the south shore during the last term of first grade in 1972. I lived in Dorchester and attended the Ellen H Richards elementary school in Dorchester. My parents moved me to the suburbs ahead of the inevitable desegregation of the Boston Public Schools. My ethnic background was similar to many other families that had moved from Southie, Dorchester, Hyde Park, JP and W Roxbury to the south shore suburb I grew up in, We were all Irish Catholic and most of the area was and most of the North Shore as I understood was where the Italian and other Caucasians moved to. Hatred and dislike of African Americans was what motivated the move for my family and also motivated many of my neighbors families reason of why they moved. I didn't like the south shore and spend weekends at my grandparents in Dorchester and I remember in 1974 when members of ROAR came to the street where my grandparents home was and they were carrying bricks and bottles filled with gasoline and asked me where the N word's house was and they proceeded to the end of the street where as I understand now a family from the Dominican Republic had rented an apartment. The ROAR members bricked and fire bombed the apartment and after the fire department put out the fire and boarded up the windows ROAR members returned and spray painted over the boards the fire department put up over the windows and front door entrance of the building. The messages were "Go back to Africa" "Never" "Resist" "N word go home"! Many years later all around the neighborhood the words "Never" and "Resist" were still left spray painted in white on brick walls. For years I never understood why it was important to hate or dislike African Americans as Archie Bunker was on the TV and my Family constantly talked about how African Americans destroyed Roxbury and parts of Dorchester. Over and over I heard how the government was stealing my Dad's money to give to Pimps, Hookers, Drug Dealers driving Mercedes Benz to the Welfare Office. I heard that African Americans were animals and threw their trash in their front yards and never cut the grass or painted the house and let everything go to crap. I heard they let their children run wild and encouraged them to engage in criminal activity. Sometimes my Dad would drive us through Blue Hill Avenue ironically blaring Brook Benton or Lou Rawls 8 tracks and I would see boarded up blighted neighborhoods for miles and had no idea of the mass exodus of business in the 60's and early 70's. There were some fires after MLK JR assassination but that didn't explain the insurance arson which was a way a lot of white property owners saw a pay off when property values tanked after white flight impacted those communities. I remember Reagan changing my Families political affiliation and noticed the ideology that liberals and democrats were responsible for everything that went wrong in America and that they wanted to steal the taxpayers money to give to the African Americans who wouldn't work for it. Kennedy, Kerry weren't Irish and to be despised. Some how I grew to disbelieve in that ideology and rejected it and realized that most who embrace it don't know better yet but my prayers are that one day they will know better. Today The Tea Party seems like a nation wide version of ROAR that don't know any better or should. I wasn't born during Jim Crow but my parents grew up in that era. Knowing what many of my cultural background opinions were of African Americans I am a supporter of Brown VS Board of Education 1954, VRA of 1965, Affirmative Action, and Civil Rights. I support America's first African American President Of The United States and the Democratic Party and I reject any ideology that embraces bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia. I believe in Science and Math and most of all Love and believe this warning; that those of good will must make better use of their time because the people of ill will have made great use of their time and their numbers are legion! Avgjoeshmo (talk) 02:14, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

I find it disturbing that many of the actions of this group are referred to as "racism" without specific examples being cited. It seems that the fairness of this article can be disputed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aseals (talk • contribs) 18:31, 1 March 2010 (UTC)


 * A loosely-universal definition of racism could be said to be forceful denial on the part of the self-perceived superior race (in this case, white) of access to services and privileges to the designated inferior race (in this case, black). ROAR explicitly, in its political program, advocated the forceful denial, or rather the continued forceful denial, of access to services and privileges to economically poor, black students in Boston. For sure, specific examples of that segregationist ideology could need to be cited here, so if that's what you're referring to, then yes, that should be added. But if what you're questioning is whether the basis of ROAR was a racist basis, their advocacy of segregated busing, by its very nature, fits any basic definition of racism. I don't think any person on earth worth any amount of intelligence could ever seriously question that. And as an aside, ASeals, as a matter of full disclosure were you a member of ROAR back in the day? Because if you were, your view is inherently biased towards sympathy for ROAR and has no place here. Kikodawgzzz (talk) 00:03, 21 April 2010 (UTC)


 * ROAR parents probably were more threatened by forced busing of their kids into schools outside the neighborhoods where many of them had probably lived for generations. That's denial of services, too, therefore racism.  By 1975 Black activists seemed a lot more threatening than in the '60s.  Maybe they didn't appreciate that the Irish were treated much the same as they were, in America, and under colonial rule at home.  I don't doubt that ROAR had a violent, racist, reactionary element.  Their acronym doesn't exactly scream "reasonable".  But initially they were apparently focused on one issue, busing, which hasn't worked out very well for anybody.  Uncritical support for forced busing - a token fix cooked up by people who could afford to send their kids to private schools - looked opportunistic, and Blacks were maybe too quick to pocket any concessions they could get while they still had government sympathy.  Maybe busing would've worked if Reagan didn't come into power, but when the working class are divided, demagogues come into power and neither side wins.  Like affirmative action, this is a painful issue to talk about for a black person, because both have backfired, because they were artificial to begin with.  I don't agree that the absence of forced busing equals a forceful denial of education, like there'd been under slavery. I also don't think it looks good to assume people who disagree with busing are stupid, or from another planet.  And since all the above poster did was question the tone of the article, asking if he was in ROAR sounds over-the-top paranoid.  This isn't the CIA we're talking about.  Even if he was, saying he can't comment and is inherently biased in favor of a group that existed 35 years ago . . . well, first off, people can change, and it is well within human ability to give insight on past experiences and be objective enough to be useful here.  Instead you probably scared him off by tarring him a racist, and that type of bravado - and binary worldview - can backfire no matter how noble the cause.  The remains of the forced busing program are bound to be slashed due to oil prices, anyway.  I'm sure people black and white will fight tooth and nail to save it, and raise the specter of segregation, as if Jim Crow is just around the corner.  I think he was driving the bus all along.  Magmagoblin2 (talk) 19:45, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

This article is biased. ROAR remained strong in Boston into the late 1970's. It appears this article was written by someone affiliated with the PLP. They give way too much credit to themselves. ROAR was not a white racist organization. It was an organization of mostly woman who were concerned mothers who felt their parental rights and decision making regarding their children's education and safety were taken from them.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.234.133 (talk) 10:40, 23 February 2011 (UTC) You and the Black posting above are right. The way the piece is written had to be by an outside agitator probably from the PLP. I have relatives of more than one race my mother is a Black RichardBond (talk) 22:23, 19 September 2012 (UTC) My mother was active in R.O.A.R. and I can confirm it was not a racist organization. I agree with the previous post, calling it a racist group is a common smear tactic used to silence people and take away their credibility. R.O.A.R. was primarily made up of concerned parents and homeowners who were concerned for the safety and education of their children, as well as the safety of their neighborhoods and their home values. What was the purpose of busing in Boston anyway? If the schools in minority neighborhoods were underfunded and inferior, then how was that the fault of children in white Boston neighborhoods? Wasn't that the fault of the local government? I attended South Boston High during those early years, and believe me it was not a superior school. It was old, as were the textbooks used, so how was busing students from one Boston neighborhood to another suppose to improve the education of minority students? Was just sitting next to a white student suppose to help them? Now that thinking is racist. Members of R.O.A.R. were blue collar working class people who felt their rights of choice were being infringed upon. Where are the references to support allegations made in this article? None have been included. I seriously question the information in this article without supporting information. As I recall, R.O.A.R. was active into the early 80's, as previously stated. They were the original Tea Party in many respect. Opposed to the overreach of the Federal Government in their lives. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.234.133 (talk) 05:07, 31 May 2013 (UTC)