The Players Tribune published an article
an article by former player Akim Aliu that every single person who considers themselves a hockey fan needs to read.
Everyone should read this so that they can understand how far the NHL and hockey in general still have to go to actually achieve the goal of hockey being for everyone.
It's great and everything that Aliu had the guts to write this, but as far as I can tell, there hasn't been much response from any current NHL players in support of him.
NHL Players make millions of dollars and are worshiped as celebrities by a large amount of people. They therefore have some kind of social obligation.
It would be nice to hear Sidney Crosby speak out in support of this. Maybe to talk about a time when he saw something and whether he was brave enough to speak up or not.
An example of how he could have personally done better would probably go a long way from someone like him.
The benefit of his experience could potentially help some of the current players who are going through things that Aliu went through.
I am a white guy, so I can't really say how much of a difference it would make, but I suspect hearing that their heroes speak out against racism, or to speak positively about homosexuality, or anything like that, could at least trickle down to how some white kids in junior hockey act.
I don't know how much it would help, but it couldn't hurt.
I just know that the culture of the NHL is extremely screwed up.
You can't fix some of the deep-seeded issues without years of making a real effort, but that effort is only, and will always be, superficial unless the part of the culture that demands silence is destroyed.
Steve Downie played over 400 games in the NHL. Bill Peters was a coach until this year. Those guys should have been outed for their racism years ago.
How many NHL players supported J.T Brown publicly after he was bashed for raising his fist during the anthem?
And the culture of silence extends even further, into politics. I'm not even supposed to bring them up here, for fear of alienating half of this websites users.
But lets say you are a black player in the NHL, and you win the Stanley Cup and your team decides to go for a visit with a certain guy at his headquarters, a guy I'm not allowed to mention and still get this article published, so let's just call him Voldemort.
Let's say that instead of killing Harry Potter, Voldemort got where he is mainly by appealing to racists by saying the most accomplished black man in the history of the country wasn't even born in the USA, and didn't even graduate college.
What does that say to you if your teammates all go to visit him when you don't?
What does it say when even writing about it can get you fired from your job?
When the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup, black player Devonte Smith-Pelly refused to go to Voldemort's headquarters because of Voldemort's racist past and present, but only two players on his team (Brett Connolly and Braden Holtby) stayed home to support him.
That is sick.
But what is more sick is that the NHL, the NHL players, and the NHL media perpetuate racism by staying silent for fear of offending their audience and maybe not making as much money.
If you read the article in the Player's Tribune by Akim Aliu you are most likely going to end up with tears in your eyes. It's heartbreaking to read about, but also it sucks to think that you and I might be a part of the culture that contributes to that.
As long as people continue to put the idea of making money ahead of doing the right thing, (which almost always just amounts to such a person or organization staying silent) they are just going to perpetuate the kind of things that happened to Aliu.
If hockey is to ever actually be for everyone, the people who currently run the leagues, play the game, watch the game or broadcast about the game need to speak up and risk being fired, or censored, or demoted in order to stand up for what is right.
When prominent people participate in the culture of silence, they ensure that the things that happened to Akim Aliu will continue to happen.
In his article for the Player's Tribune, Aliu mentioned what happened to Rangers prospect K'Andre Miller (he was attacked by a racist in a team sponsored chat). How is K'Andre Miller ever going to be comfortable (assuming he makes the NHL) sitting across from Tony DeAngleo in the Rangers locker-room?
Shouldn't the captain of the Rangers say something along the lines of "Hey Tony, if you don't stop publicly supporting a racist, we don't want you on our team."?
I think he should.
Ultimately, almost everyone agrees that overtly racist actions, such as those performed by Steve Downie, are bad.
But it's the people who stay silent who allow it to continue to happen. It's the people who won't risk their job to say that something is obviously wrong. It's the ones who go to Voldemort's headquarters despite their black teammates refusing to.
Your tax cut, or the 20% of your audience that is offended by the truth shouldn't be more important to you than being associated with racism, be it overt, or systematic.
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