Mike Newell came to Tej Sahota with a question, shortly after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.
What does Toronto FC mean to you?
It feels like a second home, Sahota replied.
“Both Mike and I, we agree on that,” Sahota says. “So why wouldn’t you work to better your second home?”
The deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake and more Black Americans at the hands of police have sparked a global reckoning over racial injustice. It made Newell think hard about the microaggressions he has suffered and witnessed over the years as a TFC fan at BMO Field: racist comments in several languages, extra scrutiny from stadium security and shouts about Black players that their white counterparts don’t face.