Melissa Buja

Boston's Troubled History With Race and Sports

Racial slurs directed toward Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones at Fenway Park on Monday have reignited the discussion of racism in Boston.

"Adam Jones experienced this on the field," said Tanisha Sullivan, president of NAACP of Boston. "There are so many people who live and work in this city who experience it day-to-day"

For the city to continue to move forward, Sullivan said there must be an acknowledgement of racism in Boston's history, realize that progress has been made, and face the setbacks that still happen today.

"If we are able to identify the individual and or individuals involved, certainly a ban from Fenway Park, a ban from quite frankly all Major League Baseball parks for life would be in order," Sullivan said.

Bonnie Brown was sitting a few rows behind the on-deck circle with her husband during the game where racial slurs were yelled at Jones.

While she didn't hear what was yelled at Jones, she said fans were crossing the line with the Orioles.

"Last night was definitely contentious," Brown said.

She said Red Sox fans were doing nothing to stop the situation.

The story of racism in Boston sports seems to resurface every few years.

In 2014, black hockey player P.K. Suuban was on the recovering end of racially charged tweets after scoring a goal against the Bruins.

"Poor judgement," Claude Julien, then-Bruins head coach, said at the time. "Poor taste and we don't associate ourselves with people like that."

Earlier this year, pitcher David Price opened up to the Boston Globe about having racial taunts yelled at him at Fenway.

"There have been incidents where there was not a racial element," said Richard Johnson, curator at The Sports Museum at the TD Garden. "The Jim Eisenreich incident in 1982 where a white player with the twins with Tourette's Syndrome was openly mocked by, you know, again, a handful of jerks."

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