[URBAN NOTE] Torontoist on the Raptors and #wetheother

[rfmcdonald]

On a bright warm day like today, why not talk about sports?



Joyita Sengupta's Torontoist post "Raptors Fans Were Always The Other" writes about the extent to which the Toronto Raptors, Toronto's NBA basketball team and the only such team in Canada, is a badge of pride for new Canadians. For people of recent immigrant background, this is the sport they connect with.

I grew up in a basketball neighbourhood. It was the stretch of Dixon Road between Islington and Kipling avenues, predominantly made up of Somali or South Asian immigrants. Despite our 416 area code, you would be hard pressed to see a Leafs jersey anywhere on my block. I can’t say I’ve met anyone from Dixon that was on a Little League team, either. However, without fail, as soon as school let out kids would run to the back of the local elementary school to shoot around whenever it was warm enough to. The older boys dominated the court, sandwiched between the six white, brick high rises, donated to the neighbourhood by iconic former Toronto Raptor Vince Carter in 2003. Despite never playing ball (or any sports, for that matter), I still get a tinge of hometown and neighbourhood pride when I walk by that court and see the VC logo on the now well-worn backboards.

At the core of being a Raptors fan is this sense you were always the “other” in Canada and Leafs-obsessed Toronto, long before the team was left out of CBS Sports’s poll, sparking #WeTheOther. Even with success of the “We The North” branding, the franchise hasn’t always received a lot of support outside of Southern Ontario. But as the Raptors wade deeper into the post-season than ever before, their fans are being put under the microscope.

Out of the words that have been used to describe Raptors fan, “young” and “diverse” are most used. An Indiana Pacers fan from south of the border was perplexed by all the “Canadian Indian Muslims” that travel town to town to support the team. They’ve also been described as some of the most dedicated, energetic fans in the league. “Not normal,” one Indiana columnist called them. These distinctions bring Raptors fans together.