Boston has a race and sports problem. But it’s hardly alone among ‘liberal’ cities

C eltics 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.

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