LeBron James said on a new episode of his show “The Shop” that Boston sports fans are racist. He’s right and other athletes have said the same. But we also have to admit Boston is slowly changing.
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Warning: This story contains profane language.
LeBron James called Boston fans “racist as f—.”
To some of you, this will be shocking. To those of you who know better, it will be like James said two plus two equals four.
“Why do you hate Boston?” James was asked on the latest episode of “The Shop.”
“Cause they racist as f —,” James responded. “They will say anything. And it’s fine. It’s my life… I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. I don’t mind it. I hear it. If I hear somebody close by, I check them real quick, then move onto the game. They’re going to say whatever … they want to say.”
What James says isn’t controversial. It’s factual. If you have a problem with it, either you’re willfully ignorant, or just don’t know Boston. I mean, James may have some uncomfortable moments in his role as part owner of the Red Sox, but he’s correct.
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There’s in fact a long trail of athletes who have said the exact same thing.
Kyrie Irving in May said he heard racist remarks directed toward him during his time with the Celtics.
“I think painting every Celtics fan as a racist would be unfair,” Boston guard Jaylen Brown said, responding to Irving’s comments. “However, we’ve got a lot of work to do, no question. There’s a lack of resources there, lack of opportunity.”
A Red Sox fan threw a bag of peanuts at Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones in 2018. New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia once said: “I’ve never been called the “N-word,’ except in Boston. We all know. When you go to Boston, expect it.’’
Former All-Star outfielder Torii Hunter told ESPN he was “called the N-word in Boston 100 times. Little kids, with their parents right next to them. That’s why I had a no-trade clause to Boston in every contract I had.”
The racism from fans at Red Sox games was so incredibly awful the team, the last to integrate, was forced to publicly acknowledge it.
“Torii Hunter’s experience is real,” the team said in 2020. “If you doubt him because you’ve never heard it yourself, take it from us, it happens.”
Marcus Smart wrote in The Players’ Tribune about an incident that happened to him in 2020.
“I was pulling out of the arena parking lot when I saw a white woman with her five- or six-year-old son crossing against the light right as the cars were starting to come at them. I had my windows down and realized something bad was about to happen, so I yelled to her, politely, that she needed to hurry and get out of the street so the two of them wouldn’t get hurt.
“The woman was wearing an Isaiah Thomas number 4 Celts jersey. And there were all these other Celtics fans around who were at the game. I figured she’d be cool.
“Nope.
“She swung her head around and it was…”
The woman called Smart a racial slur.
I could go on. And on. And on and on and on.
So, yes, James is correct. But if we’re honest. Completely honest. We have to acknowledge that the city of Boston is also slowly changing. It is still rife with racial animus and economic inequality but it has also recently done something remarkable that shows its potential.
If you had told me 10 years ago, or even five, that Boston would elect an Asian mayor, I would have laughed in your face. But Michelle Wu was picked as the city’s first Asian mayor in 2021 and became just one of only six Asian mayors leading one of the 100 largest American cities.
Three cities last year elected their first mayors of Asian descent: Wu; Bruce Harrell in Seattle; and Aftab Pureval in Cincinnati. Their elections represent the changing racial dynamics of the nation, even in places where traditionally that influence has been non-existent.
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The fact Boston, long a place that’s resisted this type of change, is now part of it, is stunning. Before Wu, Boston had only elected white men as mayor. Wu replaced Marty Walsh, who joined the Biden Administration. He was replaced on an acting basis by Kim Janey, who became Boston’s first woman and Black mayor.
The election of an Asian mayor doesn’t cure things but it starts something.
Thus as ugly as Boston’s racial history has been, and is, there remains some promise. The Red Sox in 2018 removed Yawkey Way from Fenway Park. Tom Yawkey was a notorious racist who owned the Red Sox from 1933-1976 and was called baseball’s biggest bigot by Jackie Robinson.
The problem is the hardened racist fans that James talks about have a significant and vocal presence in the sports scene there. There is still a significant portion of the Boston fan base that, well, hates Black people. That’s just a fact. It’s a fact you may not like to hear but it’s true. It’s not just a few bad bigots. There’s a problematic culture that needs change.
So, yes, of course James is correct, and as someone who once lived in Boston, and has written about its racial ugliness for decades, nothing James said was wrong. He was so incredibly right.
But it’s possible, just possible, he may not be for long.
