Ice Cold Racism: B’s fans slapshot N-Word
After the Boston Bruins loss in the play-offs to the Washington Capitals via an overtime goal scored by Black Hockey Player Joel Ward, Bruins fans brought sore loser to a new low. The loss uncovered some very racist sentiments harbored by many Boston Bruins fans, who immediately convened in the safety of Twitter to voice their pain of “Losing to a Nigger”
Many across the country are reacting with outrage and surprise. The Blackstonian is outraged, but unfortunately, not surprised. I guess you would just have to live in Boston to understand. Racism is thick in the air here in Boss-town, Massa-ssippi. Hockey has long been a sport where Black people have not always felt welcome as one of the last bastions of white supremacy in sports. Angst is high as many white fans feel like we have ruined everything with Black dominance “taking over” Tennis, Golf, Basketball, Football, Baseball, Track & Field, Olympics, Boxing, MMA and soon the Holy Grail of NASCAR. Hey, there’s still water polo.
The Boston Bruins denounced the racist fan comments in an official statement.
http://bruins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=629757
“The Bruins are very disappointed by the racist comments that were made following the game last night. These classless, ignorant views are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization.”
The owner of the Washington Capitals, Ted Leonsis also commented on his blog
http://www.tedstake.com/tag/teds-take/
“Shame on these folks who decided to take to their keyboards and show their ignorance and their racism and hate.”
The National Hockey League (NHL) also released a statement.
“The racially charged comments distributed via digital media following last night’s game were ignorant and unacceptable. The people responsible for these comments have no place associating themselves with our game.”
For his part, Joel Ward who is a 31 yr old Black Canadian who has been playing in the NHL for 4 yrs., told USA Today that the racist comments were “shocking to see, but it didn’t ruin my day.” “It doesn’t faze me at all, we won, and we are moving on. … People are going to say what they want to say.”
Mayor Menino, as reported in the NY Times, said “In ’72, ’73, when busing was tearing our city apart we had problems. But I tell you, we’ve grown over the years. It’s a very minute group of angry, ignorant people that do not represent our city.”
Unfortunately, the Mayor is wrong about that. Many of the racist “angry, ignorant people” do in fact represent our city, literally. Boston is strewn with problems at every level from a Police Force with no Black higher level command staff to the Mayor’s very own office which is also lacking diversity. In fact the Mayor’s right hand man Michael Kineavy went to prison for his actions during those turbulent busing years for what would now most likely be characterized as a hate crime.
The Boston Celtics of today are quite different team now with Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but all one would have to do is revisit the experience of the legendary Bill Russell, who while winning championships for the Celtics was subjected to the most horrendous forms of racism. For Russell his experience culminated with a break in, in which white “fans” broke into his home, wrote racial slurs on his walls and excremented on his bed.
The Boston Red Sox racist past is that of legend, with team owner Tom Yawkey passing up on signing Willie Mays and being famously quoted as saying “As long as I am alive, there will never be a Nigger in a Red Sox uniform.”
Anyone who needs further convincing that racism in Boston is not as obsolete as some would care to make it appear only needs to take a look at the comments of Boston’s major newspapers the Boston Globe and most vile, The Boston Herald. These comments give you an inside look in the minds of men in Boston and it ain’t pretty.
