The ATLANTIC’s Mark Leibovich Wants Boston To Rename Its Airport After Bill Russell — Who Hated Boston

06/19/2024

Above, basketball player Bill Russell and Lieutenant General Edward Lawrence Logan

Mark Leibovich [Tweet him] has written an article in The Atlantic calling on Boston to rename its airport after NBA legend Bill Russell. [Boston Should Rename Its Airport For Bill Russell, June 14, 2024] The full article is behind a paywall and I imagine that (like me) few VDARE readers subscribe, but there are enough quotes in the local press to give you the gist. [VDARE.com note: Archive link here.]

In 1943, Boston named its airport after Lieutenant General Edward Lawrence Logan, who fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and helped to establish the Massachusetts National Guard. He also served in the state legislature and as a judge and spent his later years advocating for veterans, including pilots. Logan lived his entire life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was extremely devoted to the public good. He’s basically the kind of man we used to name public buildings after in the United States.

It may seem like stating the obvious (and that is so often our job at VDARE) but if you’re going to name a city building or facility after a person, then that person should have demonstrated some genuine affection for the city itself. However, of all the great athletes associated with Boston sports teams, none of them openly despised the city and its fans as intensely as Bill Russell, who consistently refused to sign autographs, even for children.

As we so often do at VDARE, I anticipated this controversy years ago in Doing the Wrong Thing: Does Bill Russell Really Deserve A Statue In Boston [March 1, 2011]. Let me share just a few Russell quotes from that article:

"What I’m resentful of, you know, is when they say that you owe the public this and you owe the public that. You owe the public the same thing it owes you. Nothing! … I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies." [I Owe The Public Nothing, Saturday Evening Post, January 18, 1964]
I dislike most white people because they are people. As opposed to dislike, I like most black people because they are black." [We Are Grown Men Playing A Child’s Game, by Gilbert Rogin, Sports Illustrated, November 18, 1963]
"To me, Boston itself was a flea market of racism … If Paul Revere were riding today, it would be for racism: 'The niggers are coming! The niggers are coming!' He'd yell as he galloped through town to warn neighborhoods of busing and black homeowners." [Second Wind: The Memoirs of An Opinionated Man]

This is the man Mark Leibovich believes Boston should name its airport after. What about General Logan? Leibovich’s response:

I mean no disrespect to General Logan. He had a good run. They can rename Terminal C the Logan Terminal or something. Or name a special Dunkin’ after him; there are about a dozen of them at the airport.

Demoting General Logan to a Dunkin Donuts kiosk? Does this guy really hate white people that much?

Yes, he does. According to the twisted logic of Replacement Ideology, Boston’s airport deserves to be renamed after Bill Russell not because he loved the city, but precisely because he loathed it.

Replacement Ideology is a voracious beast.

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