Boston Sports Fans Yell Racial Slurs at Adam Jones

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http://deadspin.com/a-field-guide-to-boston-sports-radio-chowderheads-1794895952

A Field Guide To Boston Sports Radio Chowderheads

Every day, it seems, a different Boston sports radio dipshit is delivering a take from a time when segregation was acceptable

 

[MeekMonizzLLLLLLe14]

http://deadspin.com/a-field-guide-to-boston-sports-radio-chowderheads-1794895952

A Field Guide To Boston Sports Radio Chowderheads

Every day, it seems, a different Boston sports radio dipshit is delivering a take from a time when segregation was acceptable

Part of the reason there is so much ignorance is because in boston 99.9% of the time these white people grow up with minimal interaction with black people. Even in parts of the south where train tracks and other barriers divide both black/white suburbs and black/white rural areas there are just more black people period. So generation by generation in the south you see black people and interact with black people even if you guys are on seperate areas of town because they forced the schools to integrate.

However when my grandparents left the south during integration my pops and his bro went from recently integrated schools that were mixed to schools in Framingham where even with "integration" the school was mostly white. Even modern day Massachusetts outside of springfield and the black and hispanic neighborhoods in boston the majority of white people grow up never really seeing black people period. Shit my aunt was a social worker in a mostly liberal workforce and even the ignorant shit they would ask was shocking.

 

[(Nope)]

And fenway is closer to a white majority neighborhood, a 15 min walk and you're right in roxbury/ Dorchester. Thats how I know u don't know shit about boston lol. Greater boston area? Lawrence, Brockton, Randolph all have high black and/or hispanic populations.

Lawrence isn't greater Boston area my guy. It's Essex County.

Your point still stands.

 

[(Nope)]

And fenway is closer to a white majority neighborhood, a 15 min walk and you're right in roxbury/ Dorchester. Thats how I know u don't know shit about boston lol. Greater boston area? Lawrence, Brockton, Randolph all have high black and/or hispanic populations.

My aunt lived in West Roxbury for part of her life so ain't stupid. But when i got to yankees games much more of the population at yankees games is hispanic or black. Same thing when i take my dad to knicks games. Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics games are 95% white. Yes new york has more people but the percentage of black folks at sporting events is higher than boston.

In the greater boston area the majority of the black population is subjected to a few neighborhoods. Here in Connecticut Black people make up a large part of major cities like Hartford but there are also mostly black suburbs like Windsor and Bloomfield. In Boston when you grow of black in the suburbs you are seen as an alien. Like i said before my dad faced more racism in Framingham Mass when his fam moved to Boston than he did in the Virginia. The same liberals that voted the former black Governor into office would be dammed if boston suburbs starting seeing large influxes of successful black people buying property lmao.

Here you go again.

You completely ignore context and eschew logic to speculate about a topic that you are unsure of.

Have you grown up black in Boston Suburbs?

What suburbs are you referring to?

What predominantly white suburb where someone is viewed as other would that other not feel alien in?

Where you're right is that Boston is majority white. It's also majority well to do people. Living in Boston has become exorbitantly expensive and gentrification is at peak levels.

However, Boston also has a myriad of immigrant populations (Southeast Asian, Indian, Haitian, Hispanic/Latin).

There is also a diverse college population that is in part responsible for the gentrification.

Working class people of all shapes and sizes are moving outside of the city to the surrounding area aka The Greater Boston Area which has a population of 4.7 million with levels of diversity that are in accord with national averages.

I'm from Lawrence and really don't care how outsider's view Boston, but what the fuck is your point?

Your argument is a little hollow my guy. Hate the white people in the area all that you want, but you are not an expert on a place that you have never lived, so cut it out.

 

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https://digboston.com/special-feature-the-yawkey-way/

SPECIAL FEATURE: THE YAWKEY WAY

July 20, 2017

From ignoramus radio talkers to bigoted fans and a checkered past, Boston baseball has a race problem

Kalek Briscoe worked as a bartender in the State Street Pavilion inside Fenway Park for a decade. When he heard in May that Baltimore Orioles player Adam Jones told Boston media that a fan called him the “n-word” and threw a bag of peanuts at him while he was in center field at Fenway, Briscoe was not surprised. While he says he never personally experienced racism at the ballpark, being born and raised in Boston, he says those things “are bound to happen.”

The response from the city was swift, as officials and Red Sox brass scrambled to condemn the behavior. The following night, the Fenway faithful even gave Jones a standing ovation. Red Sox President Sam Kennedy said in a statement, “No player should … be subjected to any kind of racism at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have zero tolerance for such inexcusable behavior.” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker added, “There is no place … in Boston … for that kind of language or that kind of behavior.” In his turn, Boston Police Department Commissioner William Evans said, “We all come out strongly against anything of that derogatory nature. That’s not what the city’s about,” with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh echoing those comments: “The City of Boston, the Red Sox organization doesn’t condone this type of behavior,” adding it is “not who we are as a city.”

But is that true?

***

There is a long and documented history of discrimination against Black residents of Boston. If their lived experience tells us anything, it’s that there is good reason to doubt statements by officials about what is tolerated here and what isn’t.

In one recent example that made national headlines, Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che called this “the most racist city” he had ever visited. A recent poll from Boston University and the Boston Globe backs him up, showing that people in the Hub are split clearly along racial lines in whether they think the city is racist: 57 percent of people who identify as Black said the city is racist, while just 37 percent of those who call themselves white agreed with the label.

Jones isn’t the first baseball player to complain about racial slurs and verbal abuse coming from Boston fans. After he reported the incident to the media, multiple Black MLB players echoed his sentiments and confirmed his experience. New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia said the only park where he’s ever been called the “n-word” is Fenway. “We [Black major leaguers] know,” he told Newsday. “We all know. When you go to Boston, you expect it.”

BPD Commissioner Evans has said his department comes out strongly against “anything of that derogatory nature.” In practice, however, the department itself is responsible for well-documented racist policing practices. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts found that, even after controlling for crime, Boston cops were more likely to initiate encounters in Black neighborhoods and to initiate encounters with Black people.

Politicians, meanwhile, argue that racism doesn’t define Boston, despite a history of discriminatory policies, starting with those that have impacted housing for hundreds of thousands, that have led to inequality and segregated neighborhoods. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, people of color are still more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods because of a host of historical and contemporary factors that facilitate segregation. Any suggestion that these systemic issues have not infiltrated and manifested at the ballpark is unfounded, and it can only be made against the available evidence.

The racist history of baseball in Boston is nothing new, nor is the racist history of the sport itself. At the turn of the 20th century, Albert Goodwill Spalding envisioned baseball as a way for white American men to teach nonwhite men and people from non-American cultures to become “civilized and rational.” Even after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1946, the Red Sox remained the last holdout when it came to integration, not signing infielder Pumpsie Green until 1959, 58 years ago this week. Beverly Mire says that, as a child in Malden, she remembers her grandparents listening to games on the radio and rooting for any team besides the Red Sox.

The street that flanks Fenway Park to the west, Yawkey Way, is named for Tom Yawkey, owner of the team 1933-1976. He was also a well-known racist. When Robinson worked out before the team in 1945, it is suspected that it was Yawkey who yelled, “Get that n***** off the field!” That makes it somewhat ironic that the city just renamed the Yawkey Way extension after David Ortiz, a Dominican man. “It’s not lost on me, the significance of this event,” Mire says. “And I’m sure it’s not lost on a lot of people, not least the owners.”

In his book Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, author Howard Bryant recounts how, for many Black Bostonians like himself, it is hard to love a team that’s never loved them back. Over the years, some Black ballplayers have gone so far as to have language written into contracts that expressly prevented them from being traded to the Red Sox. Even star player Jim Rice, who was the 1978 American League MVP, whose number the Sox have retired, and who currently works as an analyst on NESN, dealt with discrimination and vitriol while playing in Boston, often noting how difficult it was to play here.

One highly noted case involved Tommy Harper, a player, coach, and front-office staffer under the former Yawkey-affiliated ownership. He filed state and federal discrimination complaints against the club in 1986 and received a financial settlement.

“They called it Red Sox Nation,” Harper told the Globe in 2014, “but it was never my nation.”

 

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Boston sports media was quick to weigh in after the Jones incident. Many reporters and commentators supported the outfielder and took him at his word.

But not all did.

Albert Breer, a writer for Sports Illustrated’s NFL site the MMQB who often appears on 98.5 FM the Sports Hub, wanted “proof” of the offense. Curt Schilling, former Red Sox player and current host on the extremely vitriolic right-wing site Breitbart News, said Jones was lying and accused the Orioles player of having “an agenda.” “One needs to only look at his past commentary on race and racism to see it,” claimed Schilling, who has a history of making insensitive comments and was fired from his job as an ESPN analyst following a transphobic social media post. (He had previously been suspended from the network after writing an Islamophobic tweet.) The commentary to which Schilling was referring includes Jones calling baseball “a white man’s game”—which, it should be noted, is historically accurate—and weighing in on the protests of NFL player Colin Kaepernick, saying that baseball is unlikely to see such demonstrations during the national anthem.

Amid all the noise, perhaps the most explosive commentary came from the same place that it often does: Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan, the popular hosts on the WEEI-FM sports radio morning show. Their comments began on Twitter.

“Out of curiosity, did anyone at Fenway last night confirm this? Was it on social media? Any actual proof? Is it OK to ask questions?” Minihane tweeted. He continued: “Not saying it happened or it didn’t, but the rush to condemn Boston w/no proof is chilling. And, of course, the pandering is off the charts.”

After WBZ reporter Dan Roche said it would be nice to see Sox fans give Jones a standing O, Callahan weighed in next: “What if you think he’s making it up? Still want to stand and cheer?” he tweeted.

The radio hosts then spent the next week ranting about the issue on air and inviting Schilling to weigh in as well.

Sports talk radio is major business in Boston. In reports from 2015, Nielsen research showed that 23 percent of all Bostonians (ages 12 and up) listen to sports talk radio at least once a week. One in six male listeners, ages 25 to 54, listens to sports talk. That beats every other top 50 media market in the country.

The two stations that have a lock on the market are the Sports Hub and WEEI, with the latter partnered with the Red Sox to broadcast games. In the spring 2017 ratings, the Sports Hub won among men ages 25 to 54 by one-tenth of a point during prime weekday hours. In the coveted morning show slot, WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan beat out the Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich, finishing a point and a half in front of Toucher and Rich and becoming the top-rated morning show in the market among men 18 and over, as well as among men between 25 and 54, 35 and 64, and adults between 25 and 54 overall.

WEEI reformatted to a 24-7 sports station in 1991 and in 1993 became one of the first affiliates of Imus in the Morning from WFAN in NYC. The host of that show, Don Imus, would later be fired from CBS in 2007 in a well-publicized incident involving his use of a racial slur. Before that, in 1999, Boston Globe Executive Sports Editor Don Skwar banned all of his newspaper’s writers from appearing on certain WEEI shows after racial slurs were used on the station. The feud between the Globe and WEEI lasted a decade.

The WEEI morning show, however, is well known for the right-wing views of its hosts and has a reputation of trafficking in conservative talking points and lambasting people of color, as well as women, gay people, and trans folks. Indeed, the hosts’ personal Twitter accounts, as well as their show’s account, regularly share articles from Breitbart News. WEEI did not return multiple requests for comment for this story, but according to the station’s website, “both [Minihane and Callahan] are very good at keeping listeners tuned in with unique and creative content and typically mock the ordinary … sports talk segments.” According to WEEI, this makes them “arguably the best sports talk show in the market.”

The Kirk and Callahan (formerly Dennis and Callahan) hosts are no strangers to controversy. The hosts often called Dominican Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez “Pedro the Punk” when he played. In 2014, Minihane called FOX sportscaster Erin Andrews “a gutless bitch.” After Seattle Seahawks player Richard Sherman was deemed a little “too intense” following an incredible play during the 2014 NFC Championship game (when he had every right to be hyped up), the Dennis and Callahan show used the word “thug” 12 times in two minutes. When SB Nation reporter Charlotte Wilder wrote a story called “The Patriots have a Trump problem” earlier this year, the hosts—fans of both Trump and the Pats—not only attacked her on air for months, but their Twitter followers shot a slew of violent harassment her way. It wasn’t the first time they went after Wilder; when she worked at the Boston Globe, they referred to her as “Charlotte Wildebeest.”

In 2003, Callahan and then-host John Dennis were suspended for comparing a gorilla who escaped from the Franklin Park Zoo to a Black high school student. In response to the comments, then-Attorney General Tom Reilly requested a meeting with WEEI management, while an editorial in the Boston Phoenix called the hosts “spewers of hate.” ESPN Radio personality Paul Finebaum recently called them “toxic pieces of waste.”

In another time slot, Glenn Ordway hosts Ordway, Merloni, and Fauria from 10 am to 2 pm. A WEEI veteran who created and hosted the Big Show from 1996 until he was fired in 2013, Ordway was brought back two years ago. Following the Jones incident, Ordway tweeted at WBZ reporter Dan Roche, “So you’re saying 38,000 at Fenway are racists Dan ???#panderingfool.” Such behavior fits a pattern; Ordway’s co-host, Lou Merloni, tweeted during the Black Lives Matter highway blockade protest in 2015, “I have a 34-31 C271 in my trunk. I’m doing everything I can to control myself with these protesters causing traffic on 93. Ps. That’s a bat.”

Offensive comments and controversy aside, these hosts are winning in the ratings, proving that there is indeed a massive audience for such bigoted rhetoric in Greater Boston.

Asked to comment on this story, a former WEEI intern told me, on the condition of anonymity, that her dream had always been to work in sports radio. But in practice, she says she “found the morning show”—which played in the background in her office—“unlistenable.” “The whole experience made me not want to work in radio,” she says. Of the insulting dialogue, the former intern adds, “My boss told me to just ignore it because ‘it’s nonsense.’ But the producers and promoters seem to encourage it.”

“The culture there is so bad,” another former intern told me. “With the way it is in Boston, they are never going to be disciplined because there will always be people behind them.” The latter intern, who was with the station for two years, said the culture’s only gotten worse: “They’ve transferred the harassment to trolling people online where everyone can see it and feed off it, instead of just the people listening to the show.” Twitter has allowed the show to become interactive, with the hosts’ ranting encouraging listeners to join in, and sometimes escalate, the harassment.

Former WEEI intern Jashvina Shah was herself a victim of the hosts’ and listeners’ ire. After tweeting an unfavorable opinion about Tom Brady, she faced sexist and racist comments to the point that she had to lock her account. After she pointed out that she had once been a station employee herself, Minihane tweeted back to Shah that harassment is to be expected—“how it works”—when you share an opinion that others disagree with.

 

[its....JOHN B]

Howard Stern straight ethered that radio show

 

[MeekMonizzLLLLLLe14]

And fenway is closer to a white majority neighborhood, a 15 min walk and you're right in roxbury/ Dorchester. Thats how I know u don't know shit about boston lol. Greater boston area? Lawrence, Brockton, Randolph all have high black and/or hispanic populations.

My aunt lived in West Roxbury for part of her life so ain't stupid. But when i got to yankees games much more of the population at yankees games is hispanic or black. Same thing when i take my dad to knicks games. Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics games are 95% white. Yes new york has more people but the percentage of black folks at sporting events is higher than boston.

In the greater boston area the majority of the black population is subjected to a few neighborhoods. Here in Connecticut Black people make up a large part of major cities like Hartford but there are also mostly black suburbs like Windsor and Bloomfield. In Boston when you grow of black in the suburbs you are seen as an alien. Like i said before my dad faced more racism in Framingham Mass when his fam moved to Boston than he did in the Virginia. The same liberals that voted the former black Governor into office would be dammed if boston suburbs starting seeing large influxes of successful black people buying property lmao.

Here you go again.

You completely ignore context and eschew logic to speculate about a topic that you are unsure of.

Have you grown up black in Boston Suburbs?

What suburbs are you referring to?

What predominantly white suburb where someone is viewed as other would that other not feel alien in?

Where you're right is that Boston is majority white. It's also majority well to do people. Living in Boston has become exorbitantly expensive and gentrification is at peak levels.

However, Boston also has a myriad of immigrant populations (Southeast Asian, Indian, Haitian, Hispanic/Latin).

There is also a diverse college population that is in part responsible for the gentrification.

Working class people of all shapes and sizes are moving outside of the city to the surrounding area aka The Greater Boston Area which has a population of 4.7 million with levels of diversity that are in accord with national averages.

I'm from Lawrence and really don't care how outsider's view Boston, but what the fuck is your point?

Your argument is a little hollow my guy. Hate the white people in the area all that you want, but you are not an expert on a place that you have never lived, so cut it out.

One aunt one uncle and both my grandparents still live just outside of Boston. Uncle and grandparents live in Marlburough and my Aunt lives in Natick. All have bounced around and lived in roxbury, west roxbury, and just by fenway (uncle in college).

Even with gentrification the suburban boston area is abusrdly white as fuck even in relation to where i live in the Greater Hartford area still in the northeast. There are very limited pockets of black people i have seen in Natick, Framingham, and Marlburough all within 35 minutes of the heart of Boston. There are immigrant populations from Asia and Hispanics and Latinos that are in the suburbs. But the black population is condensed into specific areas worse than any other city i have seen.

You don't see hella black businessmen and women in droves in boston. You don't have large suburban populations that are highly black concentrated in Boston. But just one state down in Connecticut there are black suburbs. Go down south and areas like the DMV, Houston, Atlanta etc. have hella successful black people.

Plain and simple the vibes and the be like us or you are against us mentality of Boston is something that deters black people from making it a destination to live in. Sure it is a college town where many minorities get an education but past that it is just a city most black folk avoid cause of the racism and one way of living that is accepted.

 

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http://awfulannouncing.com/local-networks/weei-hosts-call-red-sox-cowards-criticism.html

Days after a Red Sox spokesperson alluded to “offensive and out of line” opinions on WEEI in article about racism in Boston, Kirk & Callahan host Kirk Minihane lashed back Monday, repeatedly calling members of the Red Sox organization, including ownership, “cowards” in a long and fiery diatribe.

WEEI has removed the segment from its website, but Awful Announcing obtained a copy of the audio. Here is the crux of Minihane’s rant:

“All we did was say that we don’t believe Adam Jones. All we did was say we don’t believe that Red Sox fans are inherently racist. The Red Sox disagree. Red Sox fans, your organization thinks you’re racist. Or, by and large, think many of you are racist. We went for the weekend, we tried to straighten it out, we tried to get comments. Nobody from the Red Sox—[director of corporate communications] Zineb Curran, [team president] Sam Kennedy, [VP of marketing and broadcasting] Colin Burch, is that his name? I reached out to him. No response from anybody. Nothing. So I guess they stand by their quotes.

“This woman, this journalist, they’ll respond to her, when she checks in. They’re happy to respond to her. But us? This little morning show that they happen to carry their games on that’s doing fairly well, who was called racist by this woman, when we try and get a response back from them? Nothing. Cowards. Sam Kennedy’s been a coward, Zineb Curran has been a coward, Colin Burch has been a coward, [principal owner] John Henry has been a coward. [Chairman] Tom Werner, he was probably at [Bill] Cosby’s house this weekend, he’s a coward. They are all cowards. They have nothing to say, so they stand by this. I shouldn’t say they’re cowards, they stand by this. They think that you’re racist, Red Sox fans, they think Kirk Menihane is racist, they think Gerry Callahan is racist, they think Lou Merloni is racist because he threatened to beat up white protestors with a baseball bat, which was joking. The think Glenn Ordway is racist. They’re OK with the afternoon show. They think Rob Bradford is racist, which, if we can get to some sound of that later, is true.

“But this is what they think. They think that you fans are racist, they think that WEEI is racist, and that’s what I’m talking about when I say institutional arrogance from the top to the bottom.”

Minihane continued, asking the Red Sox to apologize for former owner Tom Yawkey’s famous racism and asking Werner to apologize for his willingness to work with Bill Cosby even after the former sitcom star was accused of rape. Throughout the diatribe, Minihane argued that if the Red Sox think WEEI is out of line in its commentary relating to race, they must think the same of the fans who listen to WEEI, in an apparent attempt to turn the show’s listeners against the local team. The host also criticized Red Sox executives for declining Kirk & Callahan’s requests to come on the show, suggesting they “don’t have the guts.”

This tiff between the Red Sox and the WEEI hosts began last week with an article in Boston entertainment and arts publication DigBoston, written by journalist Britni de la Cretaz. The piece explored examples of racism in Boston sports and particularly Boston baseball and suggested the Red Sox didn’t do enough to curtail bigotry among fans and media. Red Sox spokesperson Zineb Curran issued this statement:

“None of the opinions or sentiments expressed on WEEI or any of the 57 radio affiliates throughout New England are those of the Boston Red Sox. We understand the frustration of those who feel the opinions expressed are offensive and out of line. At times, we feel the same way.”

 

[MeekMonizzLLLLLLe14]

Typical weei fuckshit. Trying to convey the "hey fans they think you guys are all racist" stance to fire up old (and some young) white guys in the boston market. During 95% of the season boston fans can conceal their racism. But as soon as a team gets eliminated from the playoffs and a black player did something to stop it they hop on social media to spew racial slurs and throw garbage at them in the actual venue.

 

[Huey_C]

And fenway is closer to a white majority neighborhood, a 15 min walk and you're right in roxbury/ Dorchester. Thats how I know u don't know shit about boston lol. Greater boston area? Lawrence, Brockton, Randolph all have high black and/or hispanic populations.

Lawrence isn't greater Boston area my guy. It's Essex County.

Your point still stands.

Word, forgot wall wasn't Suffolk County.

 

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http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20371946/boston-red-sox-owner-wants-yawkey-way-name-changed

Red Sox: Yawkey Way, racist past have to go

Boston Red Sox owner John Henry has wanted the city to change the name of Yawkey Way for a while, and the current political climate might provide the right timing.

Henry told the Boston Herald that he is "haunted" by the racist legacy of previous owner Tom Yawkey, who led the team from 1933 to 1976. Although Yawkey is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he also owned the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate -- 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Even after integrating, Boston was known as an uncomfortable place for players of color to play.

Henry wants to put that past behind the team, without diminishing the good work that the Yawkey Trust has done. Funded in large part by the $700 million sale of the team to Henry, the trust has helped many worthy causes over the years.

"I discussed this a number of times with the previous mayoral administration and they did not want to open what they saw as a can of worms," Henry told the Herald in an email. "There are a number of buildings and institutions that bear the same name. The sale of the Red Sox by John Harrington helped to fund a number of very good works in the city done by the Yawkey Foundation (we had no control over where any monies were spent). The Yawkey Foundation has done a lot of great things over the years that have nothing to do with our history."

On Thursday, a spokesperson for current Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told the Boston Herald that the mayor is supportive of renaming Yawkey Way.

Henry said he'd like to rename the street that runs alongside the ballpark "David Ortiz Way" or "Big Papi Way," after the retired Red Sox slugger, but Henry doesn't run the process.

"The Red Sox don't control the naming or renaming of streets," Henry said to the Herald. "But for me, personally, the street name has always been a consistent reminder that it is our job to ensure the Red Sox are not just multi-cultural, but stand for as many of the right things in our community as we can -- particularly in our African-American community and in the Dominican community that has embraced us so fully.

"The Red Sox Foundation and other organizations the Sox created such as Home Base have accomplished a lot over the last 15 years, but I am still haunted by what went on here a long time before we arrived."

As other teams abandoned the color barrier, the Red Sox held out, giving Robinson a tryout and scouting Willie Mays but opting to sign neither. The club eventually signed Pumpsie Green as its first black player in 1959 -- more than a decade after Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers and even after Willie O'Ree took the ice for the Boston Bruins as the first black player in the NHL.

"When we got here in 2002, one of the first things (Henry) did was acknowledge the shameful past in terms of race relations and inclusion,'' Red Sox president Sam Kennedy told The Associated Press.

Still, the team has struggled to accomplish its goal of making Fenway more welcoming to minorities.

In May, Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said a fan called him a racist slur; Kennedy apologized. The same week, a fan was banned from the ballpark for life for using a variant of the N-word while speaking to another fan about the national anthem singer.

The Red Sox also distanced themselves from their flagship radio broadcaster, WEEI, when hosts doubted Jones' version of the events; former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling also said Jones was lying.

The country, meanwhile, also is currently reassessing symbols that evoke racism. The Charlottesville, Virginia, riots and subsequent death of a woman protesting white supremacists were fueled in part by calls to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Hall of Fame NFL coach Tony Dungy is spearheading an initiative to move a Confederate statue from in front of a courthouse in Tampa, Florida, and he has received the support of the local professional teams, the Rays, Buccaneers and Lightning.

Smh.. Changing a name of a street isn't going to stop those Boston fans from being racist it's to ingrained in them...

 

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https://twitter.com/mercnews/status/912816778262253568

Ward also dealt with the issue after becoming an NHL player when, following a playoff series-winning goal against the Boston Bruins in 2012, he was bombarded on Twitter with both racist comments and death threats from Bruins fans.