Former NHL player Akim Aliu began to speak out about the racism he experienced in hockey late last year. In a recent piece for the Players’ Tribune published earlier this week, Aliu revealed more stomach turning stories about the times the n-word was hurled at him, and how, once he decided to push back, he knew his NHL career was over.
On social media, among fans of the sport, support for Aliu was unequivocal. Hockey twitter heard his message, acknowledged it, and, for once, the trolls were relatively tame. What was missing from that conversation though were the voices of white NHL players, who make up the majority of the league.
NHL players aren’t known for being political, choosing instead to hide behind the culture’s insistence that it is more about the logo on the front than the name on the back. Speaking up, even about issues that directly impact the sport, is seen as unseemly, an action that need not be taken up by the individual.
Yet, that’s exactly the problem. Saying that racism is bad and publicly supporting Aliu shouldn’t be a political act. What needed to happen yesterday was a show of solidarity with a black player who had the courage to stand up and reveal the true horror of what he endured. What actually happened was a deafening silence from players that spoke volumes.
White NHL players, especially the superstars of the sport, have long taken a pass on taking a definitive stand on any issue that could even remotely be deemed controversial. To admit that racism exists in the league shouldn’t be a controversial point of view, but an admission of fact.
After the resignation of former Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters, players offered milquetoast condemnations of his use of a racial slur, but hedged their words with so much double speak that George Orwell would have been proud.
“It’s tough,” Flames forward Milan Lucic said of the incident at the time. “You can’t ignore what’s going on on the outside. Obviously some serious accusations that are unacceptable, not only in hockey but in the world.”
The takeaway from Peters’ resignation and the lack of a player outcry seemed to be that admitting racism is bad would have been to acknowledge that racism exists in the league to begin with. It’s only recently that the NHL has even allowed that things need to get better, but players have yet to embrace that message.
The truth is that players would much rather talk about their TikToks than provide a thoughtful comment on the issue of race in the NHL. NHL players taking a pass on issues is nothing new, but the silence of white players on this issue is no longer tenable. In the context of the pandemic, people with much more to lose have had to step up and make difficult choices as our normal way of life crumbles, and yet, the majority of NHL players can’t even bothered to offer up a tweet of support for a fellow player whose allegations speak to the glaring inequalities of the sport.
There have been a few players who have condemned the slurs hurled at K’Andre Miller during a Zoom call, and, as of this posting, only two NHL players who acknowledged Aliu’s Players’ Tribune essay.
We have to do more as a hockey community https://t.co/EhIBufTvrU
— Stephen Johns (@stjohns28) May 20, 2020
Thank you @Dreamer_Aliu78 for sharing these truly disturbing accounts of racism and ignorance. I hope that we can all listen and be active participants in the change that is needed. https://t.co/SIhZ4tCgDl
— Ryan Miller (@RyanMiller3039) May 20, 2020
Maybe more NHL players will speak up, but the chorus can’t be limited to a handful of players. It has to be deafening.
The burden to address issues of race in the NHL has always fallen unfairly on the shoulders of minority players. Too often, black players alone have to speak for entire teams and locker rooms when they talk about racism in the league and in the sport. As Aliu proved, the consequences for a person of color speaking up about racism are huge. It’s well past time for white players (and GMs, team owners and coaches) to also speak up and share the weight of making the sport a more equitable place.
In the general rush of the NHL season these conversations have long pushed aside, as reporters and fans alike choose to focus on the more immediate concerns of their teams. The conversations about race and inclusion always seem to spark around specific incidents and then dissipate as a team’s results take priority over cultural issues.
That’s not the case right now. Akim Aliu’s piece refocused our attention on hockey’s racism problem. There is no season happening at the moment that players can hide behind, yet they’ve chosen to keep their silence. Maybe they should remember and take to heart the words of poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
“To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men.”