Fiore 1

Matt Fiore

CM384-01

Professor Frechette

14 May 2022

Final Research Paper

When we turn on our televisions or attend a sporting event, we often see much

diversity on the field or courts. Sports have become an integral source of inclusion for people of

color. While we have watched our sports grow into more than just a white man’s game, we now

see that basketball and football are black-dominant leagues. This blossomed from a point where

there were strictly no black players allowed in professional sports leagues. So as our country's

big sports markets continue to have a massive diversity between their players, where does that

leave off with the NHL and the sport of hockey?

The sport of hockey has mainly only been generated across the northern

hemisphere, where all these countries' populations are dominated by white people. Hockey’s

biggest countries outside of the United States are Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Czech, etc.

This has caused a major racial diversity flaw within the sport since its arrival in 1875. While

comparing political issues with race, the sport of hockey had been taking some blows due to its

“whiteness” on the ice. We take a look at just how much this racial disparity has affected one of

the most well-liked sports on the planet.

The Beardy’s Blackhawks Midget Youth hockey team has seen plenty of racism

throughout their young playing careers. With many children being Indigenous, they claim to

have had many instances of racist remarks and gestures being thrown their way from opposing

teams. This comes mostly consistently from these other teams, as there are not many black
 Fiore 2

players in these Canadian youth leagues at all. "You just kind of get used to it and... either shrug

it off or retaliate. We've really chosen to shrug it off for the most part," (McKegney, S., Henry,

R., Koch, J., & Rathwell, M. (2021, January 1). This reaction comes to be very underwhelming,

as a stance against these racist actions should not just be ignored. But in the meantime, while this

is happening, you are seeing children being put in a danger zone in the place where they are

supposed to have fun.

A person’s youth is when they are supposed to be playing sports to make friends

and memories, but when a youth hockey player steps onto the ice just because his skin tone is

different from the rest, he is bewildered with cruel words just because this place is considered

foreign to people of color. “Given the frequency with which elite Indigenous players encounter

racism in Saskatchewan hockey, the common commitment to "rise above" it and persevere—

rather than address it directly—is entirely reasonable,” (McKegney, S., Henry, R., Koch, J., &

Rathwell, M. (2021, January 1). These actions were taken by the team to address humility, but it

often does not address the severity of the issue. The Beardy Blackhawks took a very humble

approach to a cruel environment.

Another instance of this relates to NHL star player PK Subban. When arriving in

the league, there hadn't been a black player of his caliber to come into the NHL. So some fans

did not take this lightly, and soon after polls started to survey him as the “most hated player in

the league” by some fans. Some of his on-ice actions did indeed not help his case, but of course,

there were just some fans voting for him solely on the color of his skin. “He has endured racist

remarks and, more recently, hateful language on social media. Photographs depict Subban

throughout his career, from his time in youth hockey through his experiences in the minor

leagues and with Montreal and Nashville in the NHL,” (Hassett, B. 2020).
 Fiore 3

The NHL and its fans usually witness more than 95% white players on the ice on

a given night. So when a player of color is basically one out of 25 in an NHL locker room, some

people do not react to this kind of which has been hockey’s “Achilles heel” since the start of its

history. The beginning black players are very well compared to Jackie Robinson in the MLB.

Willie O’Ree suited up for the Boston Bruins in 1957 as the first-ever professional black player

to ever take the ice in the NHL. Like Robinson, O’Ree faced much backlash in the press and in

the stands for his skin color.

But what comparison often does not even get considered is that since Jackie Robinson

broke the color barrier, the MLB has made dramatic changes to a point where black and white in

baseball are nearly the same amounts. But in the NHL, these numbers have seemingly stayed the

same since O’Ree broke his barrier. This difference has been a critical reason why the MLB has

been so much more successful and has generated more revenue. When you are willing to invest

in letting minorities into the sport to which they are accepted and welcomed, you draw in future

generations of players, staff members, and fans of the game. So while the NHL continues to take

small strides, they will continue to see the three other major American sports generate that much

more money and fans than they do.

One of the key cogs that almost dictate everything in this world nowadays is social

media. It has become the leading source of communication and entertainment to the point where

it can completely alter someone's life. When we look at this from the perspective of hockey

players of color wanting to play and be a part of it, social media has been one of if not the

biggest factors steering them away. As Gwich'in and Inuvialuk hockey player Davina McLeod

who has had his fair share of racist instances states, “I think they're really lucky because they're

the first batch after the crazy couple years we've had, where social media has become a thing and
 Fiore 4

people are voicing and it's really hard. It was probably really easy when we didn't have access to

the internet. When everyone didn't have phones and they couldn't click on Twitter or Facebook to

hear about something happening at a rink in Regina where a team got bullied off the ice,”

(McLeod, D., & McKegney, S. 2021).

Social media affects everything in this world, especially after learning about it in this

course. The main takeaway is that social media causes more harm than good. So when a minority

player enters a league where he shares the same skin color as maybe 1% of other players, there is

going to be a brutal number of people out there on social media saying extremely harmful and

hateful things.

But with all of these negatives, the NHL has recently strived for some sort of change. We

have seen a few minor instances that empower minorities within the game. A great example of

this was when the Tampa Bay Lightning suited up the first-ever “all-black” line. All three

forwards of the Lightning's fourth line were all African American players, making this the first

time in NHL history where a line was all black.

Another case was when the league issued a 2,500-word statement that would pause play

over a three-day span. What would follow was a reconstruction of their Hockey Diversity

Alliance (HDA) that would make better gestures and programs that would better reach out to

minority races. But what really irked many players and officials within the league after this

statement was released was that they had never even heard about this group despite its previous

existence. Causing an even larger dispute, the NHL and its Players Association were now in a

scramble towards building this program because of the need to come up with something rather

quickly after the Jacob Blake incident had taken place.

 Fiore 5

The NHL then also announced that they would be cooperating with The Institute for

Diversity in Sport (TIDES). This comes after a yearly “report card” issued by TIDES for racial

and gender diversity hiring. Before this partnership, the NHL was the only active league of the

major four that did not participate in this for a while. The NHL only had 27 black players on

active teams, and 18 on minor league levels. This equals less than one player per team and one

Black player for every other minor league team. The NHL is a league slow to change in the face

of a fan base and world moving steadily away from white-dominated norms and standards.

Shortly after statements from the commissioner eyeing to pioneer change, the NHL rolled out its

“#WeSkateFor” campaign in which many Black/ minority players all huddled around center ice

and strived for difference shortly after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

So with a history of racism within a sport that dates back over 100 years of play, the NHL

has not done nearly enough to support its current and future minority players. The only statistic

you really even need to see in order to understand this claim is that the NHL employs 97%, white

players. While the NHL says "hockey is for everyone," black people are not so sure. After

looking at statistical evidence, you are clearly able to tell there is a massive difference in a sport

where white people dominate. despite recent implementations to grow the game, the numbers

still are not where the league and most critics want them.
 Fiore 6

Work Cited

Hassett, B. (2020). P.K. Subban: Fighting racism To Become a Hockey superstar and role Model

for Athletes of colour. School Library Journal, 66(7), 78.

McKegney, S., Henry, R., Koch, J., & Rathwell, M. (2021). Manufacturing Compliance with

Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canadian Hockey: The Case of Beardy’s Blackhawks.

Canadian Ethnic Studies, 53(3), 1–23.

McLeod, D., & McKegney, S. (2021). “Some people don’t unlearn those things.”: A

Conversation on Hockey, Racism, and Belonging. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 53(3), 1–17.

Prewitt, A. (2021). Face off. Sports Illustrated, 132(1), 70–79.