BU Today: Prof. Copeland Sees the City’s “All-Inclusive Boston” Campaign as One Step Towards Antiracist Action
The City of Boston’s new $2.5 million marketing campaign meant to rebrand Boston as a current, diverse, and “all inclusive” city has caught the attention of many Bostonians of color, including BU School of Social Work’s assistant professor Phillipe Copeland. In a BU Today story, “Rebranding Boston: New Marketing Campaign Portrays a City That’s More Than the Red Sox, Faneuil Hall, and Beer-Drinking White Bros,” Prof. Copeland urges Bostonians to transform their inspiration from the marketing campaign into antiracist action.
Excerpt from “Rebranding Boston: New Marketing Campaign Portrays a City That’s More Than the Red Sox, Faneuil Hall, and Beer-Drinking White Bros” by Sara Rimer:
As BU’s Center for Antiracist Research assistant director of narrative and a School of Social Work clinical assistant professor, Phillipe Copeland has to make the case for Boston when he’s trying to recruit faculty of color to BU. “I always just try to be very honest. I try to tell the story about racist Boston and antiracist Boston—both those Bostons are true,” he says. Copeland lives with his partner and two sons in Roslindale and describes himself as a Bostonian by choice. “I tell them, ‘We need you to come and help us get there. And then you become part of the story of Boston.’”
Copeland says he was initially skeptical about the campaign. “Antiracism is not a marketing campaign or a branding exercise,” he says. “The best way to change the image of the city is for the city to change for the better. Actions speak louder than marketing.”
And yet, he says, he found himself genuinely moved by the All Inclusive Boston video and the website. “Just hearing the people who created it talk about it, I felt their sincerity,” he says.
He’s lived in Boston for nearly 20 years, and worked in Roxbury, but he’d never been to the Frugal Bookstore. Now, he says, after watching a video interview with bookstore owner Leonard Egerton on the All Inclusive website, he plans to take his sons there. Egerton talks in the video about how important it is for young readers of color to see themselves reflected in books; he smiles when a small boy walks in, selects a book from the shelves, and sits down in an armchair to read.
“The image of the Black child going into the bookstore and finding a book—that just hit me in all the right ways as a parent,” Copeland says. “And also, the bookstore owner described the heart behind it. Okay, this is about people trying to make a living. But this is also about people trying to make a contribution to the community and the well-being and vitality of the city. It made me want to meet some of these people in person.”