In one city — nope, not ours — sports teams unite to fight racism

Six years ago, some Major League Baseball teams began cranking out “It Gets Better” videos to reach out to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teens in the wake of high-profile suicides.

Perhaps the sports world is ready to take on another sensitive topic: racism.

The Boston Red Sox want to involve every pro sports team in town in an anti-racism campaign.

Earlier this season, Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play, was the scene of racist comments rained down on Baltimore Orioles star Adam Jones. Then, an anti-racism banner was unfurled over the famed “Green Monster” earlier this month.

The ad campaign is dubbed, “Take The Lead”, the Boston Globe reports today, and it will involve the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Revolution. The teams started planning the campaign in May, after the racism against Jones.

“When the incidents in May occurred, one of the first things we recognized was sports teams are high-profile, and we have the opportunity to help lead a high-level discussion around this,” Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said in an interview. “We wanted to take the lead in taking a stand against racism.”

The videos will be shown at all the teams’ games.

“Sports, as an entity, is a unifier,” Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, said. “It cuts across all races, all ethnicities, and all genders, and we have an opportunity through this campaign to reach people we might not otherwise be able to reach.”