++ [ originally posted by Sergio ] ++
Boston has a stigma for being racist, especially towards its black athletes.
That has subsided somewhat, however up until the mid 90's, prominent athletes of color refused to come to Boston when they were free agents due to that belief.
It all started with the Boston Red Sox being the last baseball team to have a black ballplayer, and with an extremely racist southern owner (Tom Yawkey), and it just snowballed from there.
Although, the Celtics were the first to have an all-black starting basketball team, and were the first to have a black coach. But when you take into consideration that the Red Sox are THE preeminent sports entity in Boston, you can easily see where the racist tag comes from.