A few days ago Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones was called a racial slur at Fenway shortly after the beginning of the game by a man. The offending person was immediately ejected from the game and ultimately served with a lifetime ban from Fenway Park. Not unsurprisingly in these times of heightened racial and social tensions the incident prompted an immediate response from city officials, sports authorities, and journalists as well. MLB even launched a full review of security protocols in all parks as a result, looking at how unruly and hateful fans are managed.

Some, such as the Boston Globe's Renée Graham, immediately jumped to label this as a symptom of some greater endemic issue within Boston's culture. Dave Schilling of BleacherReport went even further and claimed that it wasn't just a Boston issue but a country-wide one as well. In response to the apologies of Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh, Graham had this to say: "...as usual, both Baker and Walsh were just as fast in claiming that these kinds of “unfortunate” incidents do “not reflect the city, who we are as Boston.”

Suppose, for a moment, that Graham is correct. She would have us believe that this incident does accurately reflect the character of Boston as a whole, and is indicative of a widespread problem in at least Boston and perhaps the whole of America. What would that look like? Well, for starters, just one person used a racial slur against Adam Jones. One other threw a bag of peanuts at him. Supposing that both these people were motivated by racial hate, that gives a total of two bigots out of an attendance of 35,000 people at Fenway. This is a ratio of 1 bigot for every 17,500 non-bigots. Boston, with a total population of 655,000 people, might then have a grand total of... 38 bigots. While one bigot is too many, having a collective total of only 38 bigots in all of Boston seems like a commendable level of social progress.

This is, of course, a somewhat silly way to think. Even Graham would disagree with this reasoning. Why, then, does she and many others then use such incidents to make such wild assumptions given so little data? This can only be due to prejudice. A prejudice is, according to the dictionary, "[a] preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience." The idea that all of Boston can be characterized as racist by anecdotes and singular, wildly uncommon events like the Adam Jones incident only makes sense if one already possesses a belief that Boston is racist.

It takes a gratuitous amount of cherry-picking of the available evidence to come to this conclusion. One has to ignore the unambiguously anti-bigotry response of the Sox, the fans, the MLB, the Commissioner, the Mayor, the Governor, and the people of the city. One has to ignore Boston's thriving Social Activism scene or how the Commonwealth as a whole has been a bastion of liberal support for decades. No, it is not rational or fair to dismiss the value and goodness of the people of Boston because of the actions of only two bigots. Such a judgement is influenced by an excessive and sometimes blinding sensitivity to these issues which permeates parts of the media. And while directing the spotlight of public scrutiny on these transgressions is the best way to stop bigotry in our society, responsible journalists must take care to not let their passions blind them in their judgement and drive them to pass the same forms of prejudice which they seek to eradicate.

If we should seriously attempt to pass judgement on Boston for the events of the past few days, what do we find? We find a city of people united in their denouncement of these few bigots and the commitment to keeping the pastime of Baseball a fair and equal playing field based on skill alone. We see a society which refuses to let even two bigots get away with such heinous and undeserved slurs— where such an event garners days of attention from the national media and sparks an ongoing and productive dialogue. Graham tells us that "...our leaders must stop talking about what Boston isn’t, and recognize exactly what Boston is." It looks like we have our answer: Boston is not a city that will tolerate nor harbor bigots quietly— from either side of the political spectrum.

Zack Hesse is a philosopher, writer, sailor, and commercial fisherman. You can find his website at ZACKHES.SE for more of his life and thoughts, or stalk him on Twitter or Facebook.