The riots, and racist mindsets, stem from the same source, the poverty of The Lower End. The people of Southie needed a way to persuade them selves that they weren't living in total poverty. They needed a way to feel better about themselves. "What ever we were seeing, we figured it wasn't half as bad as what the blacks over in Roxbury had"(MacDonald 116) was the easiest way make the best of a bad situation. This negative attitude towards the blacks, combined with the economic conditions opened the door for a leader, James "Whitey" Bulger. .
Everybody considered him the king of Southie, more powerful than his brother the senator. Whitey protected everybody from the drugs and gangs of black neighborhoods, or at least convinced everybody of that. In reality, Whitey didn't protect Southie from anything. Whitey brought in the drugs, and all the crime that went along with them. Whitey killed a generation. .
There is no denying that the people in Southie were extremely poor, except if you lived there. The census showed that Boston's Lower End had the "highest concentration of poor whites in America"(MacDonald 3). This poverty opened the door for the drug trade to move in. These conditions provide very few jobs for unqualified workers, and those jobs that can be found don't pay enough to live on. So, the younger generation looks for the easiest way out. The easiest way for Kevin, and many other teens, was to sell the drugs Whitey was bringing into town. As far as Whitey Bulger is concerned, The Lower End is probably one of the best places for him to operate. The teenage population alone provides an endless supply of dealers and customers who don't know any better. These activities have a negative effect on the whole community, not just the users. "Even those that do not use or sell drugs suffer increased constraints on their lifestyles as result of the lawless and violent market"(Anandan). This drug use slowly took its toll on everybody in Southie, whether they were hooked or not.