The Boston Police Department apologized this week after coming under fire for a Black History tweet that honored a white man, the Boston Globe reported.
In a Sunday night tweet, the department paid tribute to former Boston Celtics coach and president Red Auerbach, a white man, for being the first NBA coach to draft a black player, to use an all-black starting lineup and to hire the league’s first black head coach. The deleted tweet was soon replaced with a post honoring former Celtics coach Bill Russell for being the first black NBA coach.
#ICYMI: In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth we pay tribute to Bill Russell, one of the greatest @celtics of all time and the first African-American head coach in the history of the NBA when he was named @celtics coach on November 15, 1966. pic.twitter.com/gKX7zpcUQt
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) February 12, 2018
The original tweet was up for less than an hour, but that didn’t stop Twitter from calling out the police department:
boston police: for black history month, let's celebrate one white person for escaping his own urges to be racist so bill russell would win them 11 titles pic.twitter.com/GTbuCUM1Rw
— William Lou (@william_lou) February 12, 2018
We already have a justice system that erases Black bodies through brutality and incarceration, and now cops are erasing our heroes from the one month NOT about white history. Leave it to a police dept to try and make #BlackHistoryMonth about white men. https://t.co/WgLBb3qW5w
— Rashad Robinson (@rashadrobinson) February 12, 2018
Only in #Boston do the @bostonpolice honor Red Auerbach for #blackhistorymonth. So we already have the shortest month and now this. Please file this under Hell Nah aka Not Having it aka Not Ok. #bospoli
#Boston
#mapoli
https://t.co/Jv38uutK0e— Tito Jackson (@titojackson) February 12, 2018
How about a better Fact for #BlackHistoryMonth
? The BPD was officially founded in 1854, 2 wks after sending 19yo Anthony Burns back to enslavement in Virgina in order to be in full cooperation w/ the Fugitive Slave Act. #Shamelessplug— B. Randolph ???????? (@Brandale2221) February 12, 2018
Y’all should have left the tweet up. I’m sure I’m not the only black person to resign themselves to the fact that Boston, police and all, is a very racist city. As a matter of fact, I appreciate your transparency. Tommy Harper and Bill Russell send their regards.
— Dred Scott (@mikebrickley) February 12, 2018
White men patting a white man on the back for being kind to blacks…during Black History Month. Classy.
— Somebody Loves You (@date_chronicle) February 12, 2018
The police department posted a few hours after their Russell tweet:
BPD realizes that an earlier tweet may have offended some and we apologize for that. Our intentions were never to offend. It has been taken down.
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) February 12, 2018
Boston mayor Marty Walsh also condemned the tweet.
“Yesterday’s tweet from the Boston Police Department was completely inappropriate and a gross misrepresentation of how we are honoring Black History Month in Boston,” Walsh said in a statement, according to Boston.com.
The statement ended with a commitment to honor Boston’s black leaders year-round.
“I am personally committing to the people of Boston that we will always honor our black leaders, activists and trailblazers with the respect they deserve, not just in February, but every day and every month of the year,” the mayor wrote.
