It's not about race, it's about investment. Black, white or pink the organization has a duty to itself to get Gordon Hayward back to 100% as quickly as possible. Just by the mere fact that he's white, there was bound to be those who have a lack of understanding of smart business and see racism everywhere they look.
It's so surprising to me that Boston is considered a racist city, even by those living in places like Charlette NC, and Atlanta Ga. This may have something to do with the negative exposure Bill Russell gave to the City of Boston in the mid-60s.
Yeah, in the 50's through to the mid 80s or so, the city of Boston had a much deserved racist reputation. It wasn't just because of how Russell was treated in the 60's. The Yawkey's were embarrassingly racist and the fans in the Fenway followed suit. Then there were the riots over segregation of schools in the 70's. Also, Boston's neighborhoods were awash in racial violence as whites lived in certain areas and non whites were relegated to certain other areas. During most of that time, if you were black and walking down Broadway South Boston, you were being verbally abused.
The way Russell and other Black players were treated in the 60's is a big reason for the perception Boston is racist but I also think, just as big or bigger of a reason, is that post Russell until the early 90's, the face of the team was White. We're talking about a 20+ year stretch when Black players were taking over the league, Boston's best players were Havlicek and Cowens, and then Bird and (mostly) McHale. I think those years solidified the characterization of Boston as racist because as the league had more Black players, the Celtics got Whiter.
Now, my explanation for the number of White guys on Celtic rosters during that time, ironically, has to do with Red Auerbach caring only about winning and playing the margins very well. In the 60's, when more overt racism marginalized many Black players, Auerbach didn't care and went after the best guys, which naturally resulted in the first all-Black starting lineup, Bill Russell as coach, etc.
In the 70's and 80's when the rest of the league started to accept and rely on more Black players (a change which, itself, was tinged with racism: "Hey, Black guys are good at basketball, let's get more of them!") there was a shift in perception (bias) that White guys aren't as good at basketball and were probably devalued slightly. So Auerbach, truly not caring about such things, found value on the margins with White guys whose skills were devalued by this new bias. It's a bias that still exists, to some degree (remember Nik Stuaskas saying players go at him harder because he's White?) but is mostly a relic and the Celtics now have many years where the face of the franchise has not been White.
That's my theory, anyway.