A Personal Plea for Tolerance in Hockey

By Joce, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. ~ Elie Wiesel

PENTICTON, BC. — According to Webster’s dictionary, here are the two definitions of racism:

1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2. racial prejudice or discrimination

We have come a long way from the sad days of slavery, from baseball’s Negro League, from golf banning black players, as today, black athletes are in every sport and many are extremely successful. It took a lot of work, with strong leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson to name a few but there is evidently more awareness and less tolerance towards racism in all facets of life.

This doesn’t mean however that racism is not present in today’s society. Some racism surfaces from time to time in the NHL, by players and by fans, and has been directed to individuals of all races. Each time, it tends to make headlines, bringing shame to the guilty parties in hope that they will learn their lesson and that others won’t take that path in the future.

Here are a few recent racial events involving black hockey players:

• In September 2011, a fan in the stands in London Ontario threw a banana on the ice in the direction of Philadelphia Flyers’ forward Wayne Simmonds during a shootout attempt during an exhibition game against the Detroit Red Wings.
• In late December 2011, Florida Panthers’ forward Krys Barch was ejected from the game after reportedly directing a racial slur at Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban. The slur was heard by a linesman who reported it to the referee.
• In April 2012, Washington Capitals’ winger Joel Ward scored the game seven series winning goal which sent the Boston Bruins packing for the summer. A flurry of racial tweets from Bruins’ fans, which I’ll save you from having to read, flooded Twitter and the internet.
• In October 2012, during the NHL lockout, Simmonds was once again victim of racial slurs, this time in Czech Republic as racist fans hurled “Monkey, monkey!” chants at him.
• More recently, in January 2013 at the World Junior Championship, some fans, frustrated with the way Malcolm Subban was performing, thrashed the young goaltender with racial slurs, mostly through Twitter.

Each time, those comments received some very negative publicity and the victims were flooded with encouragement denouncing the absurdity of such behaviour in this day and age, while the culprits were inundated with derogatory replies.

Have we become paranoid?

While it is important to keep on working at eliminating racial slurs and tendencies, it is also important to keep a level headed approach to the issue of racism in hockey. Not everything involving racial talks is and should be considered racism. For that, one must always refer to the definition.

Just recently, I started a topic on a hockey forum which shall remain nameless as the purpose is not to cause embarrassment, but rather to shine the light on what I consider to be a problem. In that topic, I had suggested six potential trade targets for the Canadiens — players with size and grit. I created what I thought were very reasonable potential deals knowing only too well that, considering how hard it is today to complete one trade, completing six would be impossible.

I purposely tried to acquire six black players in those proposals. They were: Wayne Simmonds (PHI), Joel Ward (WAS), Devante Smith-Pelly (ANA), Trevor Daley (DAL), Mark Fraser (TOR) and Akim Aliu (CAL). While I did end my thread writing that it be fun to see them play with P.K. Subban, the purpose of the thread was  genuinely about the value of the players.

Here are my three main reasons to single out black players:

1. The players all filled a need for the Canadiens: size and grit
2. I chose black players because there are fewer in the NHL, and when looking at them, I noticed that they were all players that could help the Habs. As we already have Subban (hoping we sign him long term), I thought it would be cool to try to get some other black players on my favourite team.
3. Montreal is a multi-cultural city, and with the number of Haitians moving to Quebec, there is a high level of respect towards black people. I’m no different. As a French Canadian living outside Quebec, I know what it’s like to not always be well liked and I highly respect them and feel for them when they are singled out or picked on. Just like I have the utmost respect for the Native Americans, for the same reasons.

I was then accused by a few members of that forum and was warned by a forum moderator for using ethnic and racial slurs.  When I saw the reaction, I re-read my post several times and failed to see any racial slurs.   Using the definition of racism as a guide, I don’t believe that I was using racial prejudice or discrimination, nor was I advocating an inherent superiority of a particular race.

As a matter of fact, those are players that I liked, players that I was hoping that my team would acquire though trades. How can this be mistaken for racism, I was wondering? Unless perhaps it was perceived as being racist against Caucasians but that couldn’t be as someone pointed out that I had forgotten Evander Kane, to which I replied that the Canadiens simply couldn’t offer enough to get him although I’d love to have him on my favorite team.

The only conclusion I can come up with is that we as a society, are starting to try so hard to combat certain ideologies that we go overboard in seeing things where they are not. We are so afraid of being accused of racism or bigotry that anything that lumps a race or a group together is frowned upon, even if it’s meant in a positive way, in fear that it may be perceived the wrong way.

Just like when anyone tries to discuss bringing in more French Canadians on the Habs, the discussion always seems to go astray. An example of that is the hatred shown towards David Desharnais by too many English speaking fans, or the outrage when Marc Bergevin went out and signed local product Daniel Brière, using the pretext that he’s too small. Yet, those same fans weren’t so outraged when Brendan Gallagher was performing last year. Bigotry is everywhere, unfortunately.

The reverse is also true, however. How many times have we heard fans’ reactions to the signing, trading or drafting of an English speaking player when a French Canadian could have been had? Does anyone remember the ongoing stories about Saku Koivu being the team captain and not speaking French? Or more recently, the public outrage when Randy Cunneyworth was named interim-coach to finish the season? The same applies to racism, unfortunately. Our society, in an effort to be vigilant on exposing racism, is becoming hypersensitive to the degree of seeing it when it isn’t there.

But then again, had I created a thread where I was suggesting to acquire a bunch of Quebec natives on the Canadiens, would that thread have been removed from the forum? Would have I received the same negative response from some members? Would I have received the warning I got, for racism?

People need to use their judgement, think about a situation instead of jumping prematurely to conclusions. I suggest that those people learn what racism is and perhaps, watch a few shows from comedian Russell Peters. They might see the difference between racism and referring to races without the intent to put them down.

Racism is an important issue and everyone should take it seriously. The hockey examples I’ve used above are racism. Promoting a trade to acquire players of a particular race is not racism.  In my opinion, it’s favouritism, if anything.

Use your judgement folks.

En français : Racisme au hockey: allons-nous trop loin?