'Disgusted' by Inequity: Sabrina Salvati on Her New Documentary, 'Removed'

Gentrification and displacement are familiar stories in Chinatown, where highway construction decades ago pushed out immigrant families — Chinese, Lebanese and Syrian — and where urban renewal and luxury high-rise developers have continued to change the neighborhood and price out longtime residents.

This story of Bostonians — often minorities and immigrants — getting squeezed out to make way for new construction for the wealthy is familiar around the city. In her new documentary, “Removed: Black Erasure in Boston,” local filmmaker and podcaster Sabrina Salvati — better known as Sabby Sabs — takes viewers through the displacement of Blacks in the city. Salvati starts with her own first impressions of Boston, coming here as a graduate student to attend Northeastern in a campus she later realizes was once part of Roxbury. She then explores the past, starting with “Great Migration” of the early and mid-1900s, the racist redlining of the real estate market, gentrification seen throughout the city that pushed out so many families and longtime residents, and the city’s current affordability crisis. Throughout, she weaves in what she portrays as related injustices such as inequities in public education and public transportation and an unfair justice system.

Sampan spoke by phone with Salvati to ask about the documentary, which is available online for free. Following is an edited version of the conversation:

Sampan: At the start of the documentary, there’s this scene where you walk out of Northeastern, which is where you went to university, and ask, “What happened to all the Black people?” Could you talk about what state you were coming from at the time when you first arrived in Boston, what were your first impressions of the city — and how did they change over time?

Salvati: Sure, I moved here from South Carolina in 2011 to attend grad school at Northeastern University, and because my parents were in the military, I've lived in different states, and I've also lived overseas. And I think my first impressions when I came to Boston were that it did seem as though in Boston Proper, I didn't see many Black people. I didn’t see many Black people in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill (and in areas) where most of the jobs are. And upon doing more research, I realized that Boston has a … hyper-segregation that I was definitely not accustomed to. I don't see that type of hyper-segregation in D.C. or Philly or New York, definitely not down South….

Also, I did notice that there was gentrification that was happening. The first neighborhood I noticed was Jamaica Plain. At the time, there was a lot of movement happening on Centre Street. There was a Whole Foods, there were breweries that were being built at the time. And I started to realize this doesn't look like the JP that I read about before I moved here. I also started to notice over the years, more gentrification happening in Roxbury and parts of Dorchester, and I think that's what really sounded an alarm for me. … One thing that really stood out to me was the research that was done by Dr. William “Sandy” Darity that showed the median net worth of the average Black family in Boston is $8 compared to over $249,000 for the average white family. And when I put all the pieces together, the gentrification, the hyper-segregation, that dollar amount started to make more sense.

Sampan: … When did you start to dig into the history, and what were your thoughts when you started to see how dramatic it was?

Salvati: I originally started digging into some of the history when I found out that Northeastern University was technically located in Roxbury. When I came to Boston to attend Northeastern I didn't know that. I think a lot of people are not aware of that. It was actually a classmate of mine who grew up in Dorchester that told me that that neighborhood was Roxbury (where much of Northeastern is now). That made me a little bit curious. While I was a student at Northeastern University, I did notice that they started to purchase more land and more property around the area, so that they could expand the campus. And that is somewhat similar to what happened in Baltimore, Maryland, with John Hopkins University. My parents are from Baltimore, and many may not know this, but John Hopkins University, when they started their expansion, they did something similar to what Northeastern did. So that means that people lost homes, because the university bought the property so that the university could expand. I learned more and more about Roxbury over the years. I learned that at one point, it was a thriving Black neighborhood, and the gentrification obviously has taken a toll on that.

Sampan: At one point you interview this former Boston Public Schools teacher in Roxbury who talks about when he had a student in the seventh grade in his class. The boy’s home across the street was being auctioned off and the teacher had to shut the blinds, so the boy wouldn't see the auctioning of his home.… That shows the real human toll of gentrification – all of these families and people who are leaving and being forced to go to other places and lose a lot of generational wealth and (community) ….

Salvati: Correct. Every time there is a displacement, those people are starting all over, and it's hard to build community. If you're being displaced, you really have to begin again. And there is wealth that is lost, the story of Rod Singleton, in the documentary, is especially heartbreaking. His family did own their home, and because of eminent domain, their home was taken from them, and then they were put into an apartment. So that's generational wealth that has been taken from the family. They have to start all over again to try to rebuild that generational wealth. This is something that, again, is not unique to Boston. It happened in San Francisco. It happened in Los Angeles. There have been communities that have been destroyed to build new stadiums. It's happened in cities all across the country.

But I think what was uniquely interesting about Boston, and why it was important for me to tell this story, is because outside of Massachusetts, a lot of people have this perception of Boston, and I want people to understand that it may not be as progressive as people think.

Sampan: You talk about virtue signaling and how you grew up in these different areas, where people were outwardly racist, but how here it is expressed in different ways…..

Salvati: Yes … it's done in different ways here. That's what I noticed about Boston. It's going to the bar with your classmates, and all of a sudden the bartender pretends not to see you, because you're Black. I've definitely experienced that at sporting venues that I've gone to here, all of a sudden you go to the counter and the cashier, who's there, just pretends not to see you. …It's them putting change in the hand of a customer, and then when a Black person is waiting for their change, they put the change on the counter. It's little things like that — the covert racism. While there does tend to be more people here who are willing to say that they support certain issues and they support people who are marginalized, at the same time, I also noticed that many of those people don't want those marginalized people living in their neighborhoods. They don't want them living next door…. They support this and they advocate for these equality issues, but that doesn't mean they want those people living next door to them. That's more of what I experienced here in Boston and in the Boston area, as opposed to the South. In the South, because it is overt, you know exactly where you stand.

Sabrina Salvati; courtesy photo

Sampan: Did you feel that some of this really came to light during the genocide in Gaza, where a lot of these towns, like Newton or Brookline, that are kind of perceived as ultraliberal, all of a sudden, took a different turn – where people couldn't talk about Palestinians without being shut down?

Salvati: Absolutely, and I think for me, because I've lived in the Boston suburbs and I lived in the city, I've seen two different things happen. I’ve lived in Newton. I had rented in Newton for a couple of months before I got an apartment in the city when I first moved here. I think with cities like Newton, it's a mixture of both. It's a racial issue and it's a class issue….

And when we talk about the suburbs in Massachusetts, the Boston suburbs, one of the biggest differences that I've noticed is that I don't really see a thriving Black suburb in the Boston area. I don’t really see that unless you travel south of Boston and go to places like Brockton. (But) a city like Brockton doesn’t have the infrastructure and resources that are needed to thrive.

Sampan: At one point you show the MBTA’s subway and trolley map, and seeing the Green Line and just how far out it goes and how many stops there are on it, it just really gives you the feeling that a lot of what you talk about is really baked into the system….

Salvati: That's right. I noticed that with the Green Line as well. Like that was one thing that really stood out to me about the structural racism of the public transportation system. … The Green Line benefits those who are in Boston Proper and now Somerville. … It doesn't really benefit those that are in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan. In some instances, it's quicker to get from Boston Proper to Cambridge than to get to Dorchester… Doesn't make any sense.

Sampan: And then you also talk about schools and busing and how some kids are still bused far away (even to other towns and cities, which is supposed to get them access to better education but means long bus trips and spending time far outside their own communities)...

Salvati: ….There's no reason why people still should have to rely on an educational lottery to receive a decent education. What that tells me is that over the years, the city never took the time to rebuild the schools in the Black neighborhoods and to provide more resources to those schools in the Black neighborhoods.

Sampan: You are critical at times of the mayor and of Northeastern. Did you get any pushback afterward?

Salvati: At the showing of the film at Roxbury Community College, there was one individual that was really praising the mayor (Michelle Wu), and I guess took offense that there was criticism there. But as a commentator and as a new filmmaker, it's not my job to make people feel better about their politicians. It's my job to tell the story and uplift those who are not heard, to uplift the voices that are silenced. And I believe that people should be critical of their politicians and hold them accountable, regardless if you like them or not. There's no such thing as a perfect politician, and there's always room for improvement. And while Michelle is the current mayor, some of these things also happened under former Mayor Marty Walsh. Some of these things were set in place under former Mayor Thomas Menino. I mean this, this goes all the way back, but we have to hold politicians accountable.

Sampan: Was there any one thing that really stuck out to you – that just really surprised you, while making this?

Salvati: There has been so much disruption. There's been so much disruption in these communities. There's been a lot of hurt, and there's a lot of pain, and when I put all the pieces together, how can you succeed? How can you get ahead, if there is constant disruption in your community that you have no control over? …. I have gone through a number of apartments in Boston, prior to this documentary, and there's a part in the documentary that features this as well, and I am really appalled and disgusted to realize how people are living in this city, where they have black mold, where people have bullet holes, where people can't use certain parts of the apartment because the walls are falling apart, where people have roach infestations, rat holes…. The fact that this city brings in so much money, and we have professional sports teams here, and so many things that happen that bring revenue into Boston, and there are people here living this way. I'm disgusted by it.

'Removed' will screen at the Boston Redline Series - Sunday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. at Dillaway-Thomas House and at the Hibernian Hall, Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.