This may take a moment...
Buckle up for this one, kids. Here's a spoiler alert for all of you.
Prejudice exists.
It exists in cities, towns, villages, communities, clubs, you name it.
There is a behavior trait in all of us which finds - at some point in our lives - various groups of people as well as individuals being biased, whether positively or negatively towards another person or another group of people.
Anyone who dares to tell you differently is lying to you.
My bigger issue is not the prejudice, nor is it the negativity which inherently arrives when any suggestion of it is proffered.
My issue is the lack of accountability for the trait itself.
Boston, as a city, is not a racist city.
There are very few cities that would promote themselves or in any way label themselves as a home for some type of "acceptable bigotry."
Chances are that wouldn't look good on some city's Chamber of Commerce website.
But to suggest that there aren't pockets of people within the borders of any city that don't exhibit some racist or prejudicial views is absurd.
It is unfortunate that one guy sitting in the bleachers at Fenway Park during a Red Sox game have cast a shadow on this city.
But I'd suggest that if this conversation about bigotry, hateful comments, blatantly racist activities and the like is going to continue, perhaps we'd all like to start in one common place.
Prejudice exists.
We're not all racist. But we all have biases. We all have prejudices. We all exhibit to some degree a preference for particular people over others.
Some call it dating. We don't prefer to date certain people because of a bias.
No one - or at least no one with any degree of common sense - would suggest that person who chooses to date a certain type of person over another is bigoted, racist, sexist or discriminatory.
More often than not, they simply just don't choose to date you.
We attach labels to that person and we speak down about that person in closed circles among our friends.
That's a bias. That's a prejudice. On both sides.
Welcome to the club.
The man in the stands at Fenway Park is quite likely a racist.
I'm OK with that, so long as he is accountable for his feelings, emotions, or biases.
What that man did, apparently throwing a bag of peanuts and striking Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones with them, is wrong. He was summarily removed from his seat and ejected from the stadium.
That guy is prejudiced.
I've never met him. Neither have you, most likely.
His words, his actions, his behavior doesn't speak for the mass majority.
But to callously suggest that his behavior is indicative of an entire city is not only erroneous, but it's careless.
To further suggest that it doesn't happen at any other time, or that this is an isolated incident that's "shockingly never happened here" before is patently false.
Prejudice exists.
I have biases towards and against certain people.
As do you.
That's called human behavior.
And once again, the door to conversation, to actual dialogue has been opened.
We can speak to one another about what divides us.
We can interact with each other and come to a place of some discord and maybe find a way to bring those gaps which separate us a little closer.
Or we can throw food at those people who don't fit into our little world.
Prejudice exists.
So does common sense.
That is all.