The NHL Says ‘Hockey Is For Everyone.’ Black Players Aren’t So Sure.

[doniceage]

As Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly sat in the penalty box during a game at Chicago’s United Center in February 2018, he listened as a group of white fans chanted “basketball, basketball, basketball” in his direction. The Blackhawks fans taunting Smith-Pelly, who is Black, were making their position clear: Hockey isn’t for everyone, and it’s especially not for Black people.

Willie O’Ree, who became the NHL’s first Black player in 1958 when he took the ice for the Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, faced racist abuse throughout his career. When Toronto Maple Leafs forward Wayne Simmonds was on the Flyers in 2011, he had a banana hurled at him by a fan during an exhibition game in London, Ontario. After Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward knocked the Bruins out of the 2012 playoffs with a Game 7 overtime winner, he faced a barrage of racist abuse by Boston fans on social media. When New York Rangers prospect K’Andre Miller, who is Black, participated in what he must have believed would be an ordinary question-and-answer session with fans on Zoom earlier this year, he was repeatedly abused with racist taunts. In a candid Players’ Tribune essay,1 former Calgary Flames forward Akim Aliu, who is Nigerian, detailed instances of racist abuse that he suffered during his playing career — from teammates and from his own coach.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...arent-so-sure/

[icefields]

i will agree there are a lot of ignorant people in the world. in every aspect of life a certain percentage are, well lets play nice and call them insecure.. why would hockey fans be any different? and dont get me started about bruins fans lol.
but that doesnt make the NHL racist. similar to the arguement going on south of our border, i dont believe the USA is a racist country. i do believe there are too many people who hate for no good reason . but that doesnt make the system racist. blame the individual or group that has those stupid views but by painting all the rest of the people involved as being part of the racism problem is a bigoted sentiment in itself. and not all the racists are white. if we all had been born without eyesight - i think some people would hate people of different languages or maybe some other differing characteristic. people who hate are the problem. and i dont see that changing in my lifetime. i truly wish it would. being a Christian person but not wishing to preach, learning to respect each person as valuable would be a good start. we are all created equal, some though even hate that idea. haters .

[creasecollector]

i will agree there are a lot of ignorant people in the world. in every aspect of life a certain percentage are, well lets play nice and call them insecure.. why would hockey fans be any different? and dont get me started about bruins fans lol.
but that doesnt make the NHL racist. similar to the arguement going on south of our border, i dont believe the USA is a racist country. i do believe there are too many people who hate for no good reason . but that doesnt make the system racist. blame the individual or group that has those stupid views but by painting all the rest of the people involved as being part of the racism problem is a bigoted sentiment in itself. and not all the racists are white. if we all had been born without eyesight - i think some people would hate people of different languages or maybe some other differing characteristic. people who hate are the problem. and i dont see that changing in my lifetime. i truly wish it would. being a Christian person but not wishing to preach, learning to respect each person as valuable would be a good start. we are all created equal, some though even hate that idea. haters .

I don't get too involved with a lot of "real life" conversation on these forums but.... I agree with what you're saying.

[subban7677]

I will respectfully and politely disagree. I do not believe that in either Canada or the United States, a person of colour has equal opportunity to succeed as a white person. The deck is stacked against them. White privilege is a real thing and we need to accept that. I know we'd all like to think our society is an even playing field, but it isn't.

[30ranfordfan]

I will respectfully and politely disagree. I do not believe that in either Canada or the United States, a person of colour has equal opportunity to succeed as a white person. The deck is stacked against them. White privilege is a real thing and we need to accept that. I know we'd all like to think our society is an even playing field, but it isn't.

Pretty much, this, 100%


Look, if a black kid comes along and he's awesome at hockey, he's going to get the chance to succeed. We've also seen & hard over the years - that he's going to have to deal with racist comments from other players & fans, being told to "go play basketball", and things like bananas thrown at him.

The white kid who comes along and is awesome at hockey, has to deal with NONE of that.

If anyone thinks that the opportunity to succeed is equal, they're kidding themselves.

Does it mean that black kids won't be given an opportunity, or that teams would bury a good player because of the colour of skin? Of course not. It means he'll be told to grow a thick skin, and learn to ignore racists... something that the majority of his teammates won't have to do.

How do you fix it? To a degree, I think the majority (white) players in the NHL could have a big impact. Instead of being typical hockey players (i.e. saying nothing, ever) they need to condemn this kind of stuff. When racist things are said or done, the majority needs to be vocal about how unacceptable that should be. I think if big name players, in particular, would open their mouths about this more (think Crosby, McDavid, Gretzky, etc) it would help getting behaviour like this out of NHL arenas and dressing rooms.

Of course part of the issue is that there are so few black players, they're easy to pick on.... and I'm not sure how you "fix" that. There is no quick way to increase those numbers, and I don't necessarily believe that they need to.

Part of the HDA's demands of the league, was to see an increase in the number of minorities working as NHL executives or coaches. The issue there, is the that pool of people that take jobs as GMs, Coaches, and assistants - most of them are retired players. That's always been the largest (by far) pool of people that take those jobs. That group of people are largely white.

Of course NHL game experience is not a requirement to be GM or Coach, but in the minds of decision makers - it's an asset. I suspect there are very few coaches (or assistants) in the NHL today, that didn't play high-level minor league hockey, at the very least. GMs (more and more) the hires are coming from "non-traditional" avenues (i.e. statisticians, instead of hockey players), so there's certainly room for someone of any race to get into the NHL by those means..... but that person would also have had to have had a strong interest in hockey while getting their education - and like it or not... blacks with a strong interest in hockey are a small minority of blacks.

What's the answer? I have no idea.... but I do feel that if the majority of players (at any level) were vocally against racist actions (instead of sitting quietly in the corner) it would take away a lot of the uncomfort that visible minorities have to deal with playing hockey, and overtime their numbers would likely increase .

[doniceage]

Pretty much, this, 100%


Look, if a black kid comes along and he's awesome at hockey, he's going to get the chance to succeed. We've also seen & hard over the years - that he's going to have to deal with racist comments from other players & fans, being told to "go play basketball", and things like bananas thrown at him.

The white kid who comes along and is awesome at hockey, has to deal with NONE of that.

If anyone thinks that the opportunity to succeed is equal, they're kidding themselves.

Does it mean that black kids won't be given an opportunity, or that teams would bury a good player because of the colour of skin? Of course not. It means he'll be told to grow a thick skin, and learn to ignore racists... something that the majority of his teammates won't have to do.

How do you fix it? To a degree, I think the majority (white) players in the NHL could have a big impact. Instead of being typical hockey players (i.e. saying nothing, ever) they need to condemn this kind of stuff. When racist things are said or done, the majority needs to be vocal about how unacceptable that should be. I think if big name players, in particular, would open their mouths about this more (think Crosby, McDavid, Gretzky, etc) it would help getting behaviour like this out of NHL arenas and dressing rooms.

Of course part of the issue is that there are so few black players, they're easy to pick on.... and I'm not sure how you "fix" that. There is no quick way to increase those numbers, and I don't necessarily believe that they need to.

Part of the HDA's demands of the league, was to see an increase in the number of minorities working as NHL executives or coaches. The issue there, is the that pool of people that take jobs as GMs, Coaches, and assistants - most of them are retired players. That's always been the largest (by far) pool of people that take those jobs. That group of people are largely white.

Of course NHL game experience is not a requirement to be GM or Coach, but in the minds of decision makers - it's an asset. I suspect there are very few coaches (or assistants) in the NHL today, that didn't play high-level minor league hockey, at the very least. GMs (more and more) the hires are coming from "non-traditional" avenues (i.e. statisticians, instead of hockey players), so there's certainly room for someone of any race to get into the NHL by those means..... but that person would also have had to have had a strong interest in hockey while getting their education - and like it or not... blacks with a strong interest in hockey are a small minority of blacks.

What's the answer? I have no idea.... but I do feel that if the majority of players (at any level) were vocally against racist actions (instead of sitting quietly in the corner) it would take away a lot of the uncomfort that visible minorities have to deal with playing hockey, and overtime their numbers would likely increase .

Sean,

To me the answer is simple (granted it might not be simple in getting a buyin in from the players. The NHLPA holds all the cards imo. There are a few players of minorities who could tell their teammates look let make a stand on the race issue. If the players do not then the whole league is tainted by having a majority who do not think this is a important issue. Once, the NHLPA is aligned the NHL has to fall in line as the players hold all the cards and the owners will cave and give into the demands imo.

Don

[30ranfordfan]

Sean,

To me the answer is simple (granted it might not be simple in getting a buyin in from the players. The NHLPA holds all the cards imo. There are a few players of minorities who could tell their teammates look let make a stand on the race issue. If the players do not then the whole league is tainted by having a majority who do not think this is a important issue. Once, the NHLPA is aligned the NHL has to fall in line as the players hold all the cards and the owners will cave and give into the demands imo.

Don

I'm with you on that, entirely. I think it's easy for someone like Connor McDavid (using him as an example. Biggest star in the league) to be 100% NOT racist, treat everyone well, but have zero clue what minorities deal with. Growing up (I'm saying from the ages of 12 to 18, before he was in the NHL) it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that most years... his team was 100% white, and if not - there was never more than 1 or 2 non-white players. It's very realistic to expect his has (or had?) zero clue about what they deal with. Even if he heard comments (was aware of it) - it's easy to see that someone would think that it's normal to hear it, since you hear them so often.

I'm also guessing that if Darnell Nurse could share a little perspective with him.

I do really believe that for players, simply "not being part of the problem" isn't enough - if the problem is ever going away. They have to be part of the solution, and that means using their voices to call out bad behaviour.

Of course I believe that's true of society in general too.

[icefields]

hockey originated in Canada. heck up until the 80's 90% of the players were Canadian. does that automatically make it a biased sport? and it is an expensive sport because of the ice time and all the equipment, which had to be replaced every year or two because of normal growth and spurts among young kids. so that limits the availability of kids who can afford to play. its not like for example football where our high schools provided the equipment and baseball where all you needed was a glove and maybe cleats. and climate, lets face it there is no winter in some US states. rinks were the focal point in many small Canadian towns. hockey was in our DNA. but things are changing. more opportunities are surfacing especially in the States. yet change is slow. the points made above about high level office positions/coaching etc are true. but the only way to change dramatically is thru revolution. it will take time but i believe change will happen. nowadays Canadian content in hockey is "down" around 45-50%. thats change. players of colour are becoming the norm on most teams. yes its only 1 or 2 per team, but it is happening. you cant force change, that doesnt work. and i dont believe anybody likes the "token" system. that is almost as bad as racism for that individual. Respect for one another is the key. i have found that the offhand/bigoted responses are from envious uneducated people. teaching respect and acceptance for everyone should begin at home and throughout our school systems. and our NHL stars should be vocal against any type of bigotry. i think that begins in the dressing room, and needs to be more than just window dressing. but real change is slow and it needs to begin, someone needs to lead because most people are followers.

[mrveggieman]

With me being black myself it would be nice to see more people who look like me play hockey. Unfortunately there isn't a bunch of ice skating rinks in the black community so we don't get the opportunity play hockey when we are younger and gravitate to other sports that we have access to play.