What has your experience been like as a Black professional athlete in Boston?
There’s multiple experiences: as an athlete, as a basketball player, as a regular civilian, as somebody who’s trying to start a business, as someone who’s trying to do things in the community.
There’s not a lot of room for people of color, Black entrepreneurs, to come in and start a business.
I think that my experience there has been not as fluid as I thought it would be.
What do you mean by that?
Even being an athlete, you would think that you’ve got a certain amount of influence to be able to have experiences, to be able to have some things that doors open a little bit easier. But even with me being who I am, trying to start a business, trying to buy a house, trying to do certain things, you run into some adversity.
Other athletes have spoken about the negative way that fans have treated Black athletes while playing in Boston. Have you experienced any of that?
I have, but I pretty much block it all out. It’s not the whole Celtic fan base, but it is a part of the fan base that exists within the Celtic nation that is problematic. If you have a bad game, they tie it to your personal character.
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.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/sports/basketball/boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-activism-kanye-west.html