In All Souls, A Family Story from Southie, Michael Patrick MacDonald describes the events he and his family faced growing up in South Boston. In 1973 Michael, his seven brothers and sisters, and their mother moved into Old Colony Housing Project in Southie. At the time they moved to The Lower End, the area was all white, and in fact mostly Irish. To outsiders, the people of Southie were thought of as poverty-ridden racists, but just about everybody who lived there considered Southie "the best place in the world." The severe poverty the families faced in South Boston provided an in for the violence, racism, and drugs that devastated the youth population. .
Violence was abundant in The Lower End. Michael talks about the kids reenacting the fights in slow motion blow by blow. As time goes on, the kids start acting out the shootings shot by shot. During the busing riots everybody was involved it the violence, even if they didn't want to be included. "I threw a rock once. I had to. You were a pussy if you didn't I didn't really want it to smash a bus window. I only wanted the others to see me throwing it"(MacDonald 85). Violence was almost a way of life for the people of Southie. The reason for some of this violence, the busing for example, was rebellion. These people were rebelling against the system that didn't give a damn about them, and the only way they knew was to fight. " when playing by the "code of the streets" violence is one of the primary (in some cases preferred) methods for solving conflict. The reason for this is simple: impoverished people often have very few conflict-solving "tools" in their repertoire -- violence is sometimes just about the only tool available" (Anderson). Violence provided a common ground for all. "Everyone's sticking together Everyone's going to fight for us kids"(MacDonald 76). .
America considered the people of South Boston to be racists, and the busing riots only proved their thoughts to be correct.