The Boston Police Department chose to celebrate an equality-minded white basketball coach for Black History Month, and promptly got blasted for it on Twitter.
In a since deleted tweet posted on Saturday night, the Boston Police Department chose to celebrate former Celtics coach Red Auerbach. While Auerbach is white, the department chose to honor him because he was the first NBA coach to draft an African-American player, play an all African-American starting lineup, and hiring the first African-American head coach.
“In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth we pay tribute to the @celtics legend #RedAuerbach for being the 1st @NBA coach to draft a black player in 1950, field an all African-American starting five in 1964 and hire the league’s 1st African-American head coach (Bill Russell) in 1966, the tweet explained, according to the Boston Globe.
It did not take long for those eager to be offended to be…well…offended. Former city councilor Tito Jackson made his disgust known:
It did not take long for BPD to apologize and retract the tweet:
According to Fox News, “The tweet was deleted less than an hour after it was posted. The department’s account later posted another tweet that night honoring Bill Russell, the first African-American head coach in the NBA. The police department apologized for the tweet early Monday.”
Here is BPD’s follow-up tweet, posted late Sunday night: