Arts & Culture

Teens jump guitar-playing ‘bear’ in racial attack

Bob CollinsBob Collins Jun 19, 2017
13

What does it say about America that a guy can’t dress up like a bear and play some music without getting jumped?

It happened again to Keytar Bear, who is an iconic busker in Boston.

Nobody knows Keytar Bear’s true identity and there’s a reason for that.

“I’d say, I’m trying to kill racism in my own way,” he said in a 2014 interview. “I want to be responsible for the demise of racism. You don’t know if [I’m] black or white, you just see a little bear. He’s playing music and he’s having fun.”

According to Boston.com, three teenagers from New Hampshire “repeatedly hit Keytar Bear in the face, ripped off his bear costume head, and hurled racial slurs at him and those who tried to stop the public assault. The street performer’s amplifier was also reportedly damaged in the attack.”

He was playing outside Faneuil Hall — irony, anyone? — in 2014 when someone sucker punched him and broke his nose, one of three assaults that year that elevated him to cult status when Bostonians started raising money to get him playing again.

A $500 GoFundMe campaign went over $4,000 this afternoon, the latest effort in the city to push back against the racists who walk its streets and beat up its bears.