When Hubert Davis talks about racism in hockey, he brings up the word “deniability.” He says this applies not only to sports, but also to countries where sports are loved.
“Let’s say you’re white and grew up in Canada,” he explained. “You have never experienced it yourself, nor have you seen it. [racism]So it just makes us think that it doesn’t really exist in any meaningful and impactful way. ”
“I think we have to think about hockey the same way, not just Canadian hockey,” he continued. “Obviously, hockey is huge in Canada, but hockey as a sport globally has this kind of calculation and you realize this exists, just because people aren’t speaking out about it. does not mean that it did not exist.”
Davis became part of that reckoning, made and released the film black ice We take a look at two intertwined stories of a black Canadian hockey player.
The film was executive produced by LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter through James and Carters. Uninterrupted Canadadebuted at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival as one of the live/virtual hybrid festival live theaters and just started streaming on Canada’s Bell Media platform.
“This is more than hockey”
One side of the story — the one Davis was first asked to investigate — is the Colored Hockey League, an all-black hockey league that began in Primorye, Canada in 1895 and lasted through the first decades of the 20th century. It’s about As the film depicts, hockey innovations such as slapping his shot and a more mobile goaltender his play were pioneered in the All-His Black League before transitioning to the National Hockey League to help the wider sport. Now part.
But when asked to do the project, Davis digs in, saying, “Oh, this is more than hockey. This is about the black experience in Canada.”
the other side of black ice The coin includes racism addressed while playing the game that recent and current NHL players such as PK Subban, Wayne Simmonds, Akim Aliu and Darnell Nurse love. That part of the story also extends to the women’s game, with Davis talking to Sarah Nurse (Darnell’s cousin) and including Willie Ory, the first black player in the NHL.
Among the stories shared by recent generations of black athletes are the frightening ones, such as coaches and teammates using the n-word without qualms in the locker room or on the ice.
And then there’s Simmons, who was outraged after a fan threw bananas at him during a 2011 exhibition match in London, Ontario. Fan Christopher Morehouse was arrested and “charged with state trespassing because London police said there was not enough evidence to charge him with a hate crime”, but Morehouse’s guilty plea was $200. With only fines, the Philadelphia Inquirer— Attempting an Inappropriate Banana Pun — dismissed the case as a “mistake.”
Upon hearing the story, Davis, himself Canadian-born and a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, was surprised at how young some of the players were when he first encountered racism in hockey.
“It was amazing, and it was also amazing that it was generally a very young age when it happened to them. I think we try to process it with age, and the other thing is that most of the players I’m interviewing are young, most of them in their 20s.”
Davis said Mark Connors, a teenager he interviewed to capture the current state of youth hockey, described the recent incident and said, “This happened around this time. No, all these stories seem up-to-date.” bottom.
But as Davis talked to more players and they got to know each other’s stories, it served as a kind of validation that it was more common than they thought.
“I think they were a lot more relieved when they heard the other players,” Davis said, adding that the reaction was, “Oh, I’m not crazy. It wasn’t just me. I imagine these things.” I didn’t.
“Shut up and play”
Davis reached out Dr. Debra Thompsonthe Canadian Research Commissioner for Racial Inequality and Democratic Societies at McGill University, provided insights on race, sport and society. black ice Some additional context and intellectual weight.
“It’s hard to be Canadian and I haven’t seen hockey at least a little bit in my life,” she said. “When I was a kid, I used to watch hockey with my dad. It’s always on TV, like hockey on Saturday nights,” she added, adding that for her father, hockey was a “hierarchy of the sport.” and for many Canadians it is part of the national experience of the community.
However, she also expressed concern that there are elements of the larger “hockey culture” that allow racism to occur and discourage resistance to instances of racism.
“People are trained to participate privately,” she said. “It’s really about the mentality of the team. So complaining or voicing concerns is really discouraged. If a coach doesn’t believe in a player’s future, whether it’s their current life or their future status. When you have that much power, the idea of ”playing shut up” is built into the culture itself. ”
In fact, there’s a scene in the movie where Subban talks about a locker room encounter with his coach when he was still a young player. The coach yelled at him to stop playing “n****r music” and Subban complied without protest. .
The story of the Colored Hockey League is introduced early in the story by historian brothers Daryl and George Fosty. They began exposing several falsehoods about the fledgling All Black League. Just like the team named Jubilee was named after Queen Victoria’s celebration rather than the term. It is wrapped in a symbol of freedom from slavery. Davis picks up on their work thread and uses much of the film to celebrate.
As positive as its storyline is, artistically filmed black-and-white scenes systematically permeate the landscape in which the team played, including imagining and recreating the players practicing together. There is a troubling stream of racism.
“If you don’t talk about it, you don’t have to take ownership.”
One of the league’s dominant teams, the Africville Seasides, were based in Africville, a black community located on the outskirts of Halifax, Nova Scotia, along part of the south bank of the Bedford Basin. .
As the Canadian Museum for Human Rights points out on that website Elaborating on Africville’s story, “Discrimination and poverty have created many challenges for the community of people in Africville. Refusing to provide many amenities one could take for granted, Africville residents who pay taxes and take pride in their homes have repeatedly asked the city to provide these basic services. The city exacerbated the problem by building many unwanted developments in and around Africville, including an infectious disease hospital, a prison, and a garbage dump. I was allowed to.”
In 1964, Halifax City Council passed the resettlement of Africville residents, and over the next six years, the village was demolished building by building. Former residents offered compensation of various questionable amounts, as the Human Rights Museum describes. their homes and businesses.
The film opens with Davis narrating. Much of that history is just lost. That’s why it’s so important to tell those stories. ”
“equality hashtag”
That’s certainly applicable to the Africville and Colored Hockey Leagues, but it’s also applicable to the NHL, and even in August 2020, other major American sports leagues were committing to saying “Black Lives Matter.” As it was called, it went for a more milquetoast approach that the moment called for.
Hemal Jhevari, former USA Today race and inclusion editor, said the NHL integrated #WeSkateForBlackLives into its campaign and used #WeSkateFor as Blanket’s “equality hashtag” to help the league support multiple causes. requested to be notified. Jhevari also accused the league of reading his END RACISM on his digital signage inside the arena for not being specific enough.
“Ending racism is a lofty and honorable goal, but it is as specific as wishing for world peace. “What was missing from every corner of the arena was a reference to Black Lives Matter, a movement that has come to define the last few months. We made a very specific and calculated choice by choosing the more neutral Black Lives.”
(The NHL did not respond to requests for participation in this article.)
Upon seeing the final version of the film, Thompson declared it “amazingly beautiful” and “incredibly well-made”, and praised how Davis was able to piece together the NHL and CHL stories.
“My feelings when I saw it were double,” Thompson said. “One is that I wanted to play hockey.” she said: It seems like an amazing, amazing experience for these young people. And, you know, it’s an experience that’s often tainted by racial trauma.
So on the one hand, I wish I had played,” she recalled.
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