Celtics wing Jaylen Brown shocked many when he recently spoke about Boston fans’ treatment of Black players. Asked by the New York Times if he had received any negative treatment from the Boston fanbase, he said: “I definitely think there’s a group or an amount within the Celtic nation that is extremely toxic and does not want to see athletes use their platform, or they just want you to play basketball and entertain and go home. And that’s a problem to me.”
We know the Maga-influenced cities across America are trying to turn back the clock on social and racial issues. But an equally dangerous form of racism exists in gentrified, majority-white, and left-leaning US cities. And that prejudice often emerges among sections of those cities’ sports fans.
Boston, Massachusetts
Let’s start with the city that started the conversation. Boston is known as the center of Democratic royalty, the home base of the Kennedy clan, and 20th-century classical liberalism. It’s home to elite colleges such as Harvard and MIT. It is also one of the most heavily-Democratic cities in America. Unfortunately, it also has a troubling history of racism.
In 1974, Bostonians violently resisted desegregation, particularly in South Boston, the city’s prominent Irish-Catholic neighborhood. These protests led to the “busing crisis,” where school buses transporting Black children to desegregated schools were bombarded with eggs, bricks, and bottles. A 2015 study found the median net worth of white Bostonians was $247,500. In contrast, Black Bostonians’ median net worth was just $8.
To many, “being racist” means burning a cross in someone’s yard. But it can also be created by housing discrimination, gentrification, and redlining. No wonder a 2017 Globe article found that Boston was ranked by Black respondents as the least welcoming to people of color among eight major cities. In 2020, the city’s mayor declared racism a public health crisis.
But it is in the world of sports that the city’s racism problem gets perhaps the most coverage. In 2020, Celtics guard Marcus Smart told Andscape about an interaction with a Boston fan wearing an Isaiah Thomas jersey. Smart was driving near TD Garden, the Celtics’ home arena, when he rolled down his window to warn a woman and her child about oncoming traffic. Her response? “As soon as I said that, she looked at me – as she is wearing a No 4, green with the white outline Celtics jersey – and told me, ‘Fuck you, you fucking [N-word]’,” Smart recalled.
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, described Celtics fans as “racist as fuck” on his series, The Shop, last year. He recalled being cussed at and having beer bottles thrown at him. And he’s not the only NBA champion to detail Celtic fans’ racism. Golden State Warrior Draymond Green said he and Stephen Curry were called the N-word by Celtics fans during last year’s NBA finals.
The abuse extends to city’s baseball team too. In 2017, the Red Sox apologized to Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones after he was subjected to racist abuse by some of the club’s fans. New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said Black baseball players expect racist taunts in Boston. “We know,” Sabathia said in 2017. “There’s 62 of us. We all know. When you go to Boston, expect it.”
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is often seen as a liberal oasis in a conservative state. In Salt Lake county, 53% of people voted for Joe Biden in the last presidential election. In fact, they voted Democrat in 2016 and 2008 as well. But allegations of racism in the city’s suburban schools have been documented while, as in Boston, the mayor has declared racism a public health crisis.
“This is an important declaration for us to make as a city. Not only are we publicly acknowledging the existence of a grave inequity that many in our community have known and experienced for so long, we are also committing ourselves to the creation of policies and ordinances that are anti-racist,” Salt Lake City’s mayor, Erin Mendenhall, said in 2021.
Upon leaving via trade last summer, Donovan Mitchell, the greatest Jazz player of the 21st century, who played for the franchise for six seasons, said racism in Utah was “draining.”
“Man, it was just one thing after another. And I will say, it’s not the only place it happens. But for me … to receive the amount of pushback I got over the years, it was a lot,” Mitchell told Andscape.
Another Black NBA player, Russell Westbrook, had similar experiences. In 2019, Westbrook had enough. In a road game against the Utah Jazz, the then Oklahoma City guard was caught on camera cursing at two fans in the stands. After the game, he told reporters he had repeatedly faced verbal abuse while playing in Salt Lake City.
“Every time I come here, I encounter disrespectful remarks,” he said. He added that his response was triggered by a fan who made “racial” comments, asking him to “get down on your knees like you’re used to.” The Jazz organization banned the fan for life while the NBA fined Westbrook $25,000.
The incident was no surprise for many players. Former NBA player Etan Thomas wrote in the Guardian that “when it comes to racial abuse of the sort Westbrook alleged, Utah is as bad as it gets.”
Portland, Oregon
The liberal vibe of Portland, complete with hipsters, craft beer, and progressive politics, has been immortalized in the satirical show Portlandia. But the lasting effects of Portland’s racist history can still be felt today. It is the whitest major city in the United States, something that has attracted far-right groups to Portland in recent times. Redlining was also employed in an attempt to create segregated neighborhoods. Indeed, a 2011 housing audit found that landlords in the city discriminated against Black and Latino tenants 64% of the time by charging them extra fees, higher rents, or demanding larger deposits.
That racism can sometimes be seen in the city’s sports. This season, a Portland Trail Blazers fan was removed from the arena for, according to those who heard the exchanges, directing racist comments toward Jazz player Jordan Clarkson.
NBA players have encountered problems off the court too. Former Blazer Mo Harkless recalled his interaction with a police officer on the way to a playoff game. According to Harkless, instead of explaining the reason for the stop, the officer inquired about the car’s ownership and asked Harkless to provide his identification. When the cop learned Harkless was a well-known athlete, his demeanor completely transformed, and he even offered him good luck in the game.
“We’re still looked at as less when we step off that court, we’re still targeted by officers when we step foot off that court,” said Harkless. “Luckily, I’m a fortunate man who has to deal with less of this in his life, but I feel for my brothers and sisters who aren’t as lucky to show an ID and have an officers’ whole viewpoint of you change in an instant.”
Denver, Colorado
The Roots of Structural Racism Project, ranked Democrat-voting Denver as “highly segregated.” Like most segregation issues, it starts with schools. More than two decades have passed since Denver discontinued court-ordered busing that aimed to integrate its schools. Still, recent reports indicate that more than 50% of the city’s public schools remain as segregated as they were in the late 1960s. Students have voiced concerns that some schools are only integrated on paper, with advanced classes still predominantly composed of white and Asian students.
Any conversation with the city’s NBA team, the Nuggets, and its relation to race has to start with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. When he refused to stand for the national anthem in 1996, he was suspended by the NBA. The Nuggets soon traded him, while employees of a Denver-based radio station burst into a local mosque playing the Star-Spangled Banner in a boneheaded act of retaliation. Over the years, Abdul-Rauf received hundreds of death threats, hate mail, and had swastikas spray-painted on his house.
Examples of prejudice continue to this day. In 2019, Enes Kanter asked the Nuggets to “take control of your fans” after he was told “to go back to Turkey”. In the same year, Smart said he was told to “stay on the ground, get on your knees” by a fan on a road game in Denver.
Boston, it seems, has a problem. But to say it’s an isolated one is to misunderstand America.
