Lebron James has once again caused a stir throughout the sports world. I’m not talking about his 42 point performance at The Drew League, or the rumors of him being in favor of a reunion with Kyrie Irving with the Los Angeles Lakers, this was as a result the apparent outrage he caused for the fan base in Boston. During the most recent episode of HBO’s The Shop, Lebron James answered the question of, “Why do you hate Boston?” James responded with
“Because they’re racist as %¥£&
Upon hearing news of Lebron’s statement, many didn’t exactly consider this “Breaking News”, as Boston has historically had a rich history of being exactly what Lebron James described. However, there were a large amount of Boston fans who took to social media to take exception to Lebron’s generalization of the entire city. But was he wrong ?
You don’t exactly have to get Dr. Emmett Brown and his time machine and the Delorian with the 1.21 jiggawatts to go back in time to the 60’s when Bill Russell described his racist encounters with Boston fans. Plenty of professional athletes from every sport have made public their recent racist encounters in Boston.
Former Boston Celtic Dee Brown his rookie year was physically snatched out of his car and ordered to lay on the ground with a gun pointed at him by Boston police while driving in a white neighborhood. The police later claimed that he “resembled a suspect”
https://apnews.com/article/a34620ecfa0605c35908d7f1b858b427
This falls right in line with recent data collected from the Boston Police Department that unveiled
Seventy percent of people stopped by Boston Police officers through the department’s “Field Interrogation and Observation” program throughout were Black — even though Black residents comprise less than one quarter of the city’s population.
Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban, was vocal about racist tweets and comments social media from Boston fans following his winning goal in the 4-3 double-overtime playoff win over Boston in the playoffs. This wasn’t a case of fans simply being upset their team lost, this was racial epithets being specifically targeted against a Black player.
Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones told reporters that he had racial epithets hurled at him for an entire game by Boston fans.
“A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,” Jones said, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight.”
“It’s unfortunate that people need to resort to those type of epithets to degrade another human being,” Jones added. “I’m trying to make a living for myself and for my family.”
https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/02/orioles-adam-jones-red-sox-fans-racist-taunts
Former Boston Celtic and current point guard for the Brooklyn Nets Kyrie Irving was vocal about various encounters he has had with the fans of Boston. Irving didn’t give any specific examples to reporters, but rather imported fans at TD Gardens to keep it “strictly basketball”
Celtics guard Marcus Smart seemingly supported Irving’s comments. Back in Oct. 2020, he penned an article for The Player’s Tribune, detailing an encounter with a white woman in Boston. Smart told the story of a time he attempted to be a Good Samaritan and tell a white woman, who was actually wearing a Celtics jersey, to be careful walking in the street as she was in the direct line of oncoming traffic, but instead of thanking him, the woman turned around and hurled a racial epithet directly at him.
“I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said ahead of Game 3 in 2021, according to Jay King of The Athletic. “It’s kind of sad and sickening because even though it’s an opposing team, we have guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you’re expecting us to go out there and play for you.”
So to those who were unaware, yes racism is definitely alive and thriving in the city of Boston, but is it fair to label the entire city of Boston as racist ?
I interviewed the Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell in my book We Matter “Athletes And Activism” and this is what he told me,
“Well, one thing you have to always remember is that the majority of the country are decent folks. The majority of white people are decent folks. And I was always very careful not to stereotype people based on the actions of a few, or a little more than a few, as was the case in Boston…… A lot of the stuff that went on, I knew they were individual acts and not a reflection of everybody in Boston. I see many people today who who really believe that Black folks are responsible for all of the actions of other Black folks, and that’s just ridiculous. And it’s just as crazy for me to think that all white people were responsible for the ones that treated me and my family so poorly, broke into my house, and destroyed my property for no reason at all…… but just because I said that I don’t put all white people in the same boat doesn’t mean I don’t still recognize that too many white people looked at me as less than, and no matter what they thought, I wasn’t about to allow them to treat me as less than”
Powerful words by a giant in NBA history and one of the great athlete activists the game has ever seen.
Celtics guard Jaylen Brown also addressed Kyrie Irving’s comments, but also brought light to the fact that racism extends far beyond the borders of athletics in Boston. During Jaylen Brown’s media availability prior to Boston’s Game 3 win over Brooklyn, he spoke about systemic racism in the city of Boston and to Bill Russell’s point that every Boston fan isn’t racist….
“I don’t think we should have to put up with that, and I don’t think that’s Ok…..
“I think that racism should be addressed, and systemic racism should be addressed in the city of Boston and also the United States……The constructs of racism in our school system, inequality in education, lack of opportunity, lack of affordable housing, lack of affordable health care, tokenism, the list goes on.
“I know that every Celtics fan in our arena is not a racist. We have people of all walks of life, ethnicities, colors, that are die-hard Celtics fans. So I think painting every Celtics fan as a racist would be unfair. However, Boston, we’ve got a lot of work to do, no question.”
So in conclusion, yes Boston has a very long history and present when it comes to racism, but it’s not everybody. Hopefully the non racist white people of Boston will be inspired to prove Lebron wrong and will become filled with the moral courage and feel obligated to no longer remain silent in the face of being surrounded by prevalent racism both systemically and on the personal level such as Boston fans yelling racial epithets at players. Hopefully, the non racist white people of Boston will become agents of change, equality, justice and unity. As Angela Davis said,
“In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”
