The annual hockey festival that is the World Junior Hockey Championship has captivated Canadians again this holiday season. While the National Hockey League (NHL) lockout has frustrated hockey-philes, the World Juniors have provided drama and difficulties while Team Canada's discipline has kept it afloat in Ufa, the Russian host city.
I'm still fuckin stunned that canada has a nigger in net
— ricky beaton (@rickybeaton184) December 30, 2012
Kay Malcom Subban's TRASH. fucking monkey
— Cody Campos (@codycamposs) December 28, 2012
Team Canada has a black goalie.. Wtf is going on here? #confused
— Derek Somerville (@somerville5) December 27, 2012
Canada has not gone with a single goalie since Carey Price's 2007 MVP-worthy performance. At the time, little if nothing at all was made of his ethnic heritage. The Anahim Lake, B.C.-native, whose mother is the former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation, was feted wholeheartedly. While we rejoice in Canada's latest win against Team USA, some online commentary has shown some undercurrents of uneasiness surrounding the first black starting goalie Canada's ever had.
Reminiscent of the now-famous scene in Tarantino's epic film Django Unchained where the main character causes a cluster of rubber-necking when seen riding a horse into town, the sight of Team Canada's goalie's skin colour was met with laughter, bemusement, confusion and contempt from Canada and abroad.
@cathy_belanger lol the whole subban family gives every black hockey player hope
— Hanad Hashi (@hanadhashi) December 30, 2012
@armaandhami_ is it me or the coachs are just calling subban a good goalie cuz he's black nd they don't wanna be racist..
— Gurveer Bhullar (@gurv_bhullar) December 28, 2012
Some questioned his place on the roster and on the ice. Sadly, some welcomed Malcolm Subban's presence like a fly in the proverbial pail of milk. Others found clever comparisons to another black man who occupies a position previously exclusive to caucasians. Predictably, members of visible minority communities in Canada, often absent on the ice and in the stands -- who can blame them -- expressed pride in Team Canada's continued steps towards openness and inclusion.
I love Subban don't get me wrong ! But its very weird to see a complete black person play goalie #notracist #justdifferent
— Dressing Room Talk™ (@HockeyHood) December 26, 2012
Nothing against black players, but most know many don't play hockey, yet alone play goalie. Subban is one of the best. #TeamCanada
— Keenan Freitag (@The_Kan8tn) December 26, 2012
watching the world hockey juniors and Canada has a black goalie..woah.,world finna end soon I think. #teamcanada
— Eric Kibi (@EMK32_) December 30, 2012
History tells us that Canada's national sport was dead last in racial desegregation. In the late 1930s, after watching the late, great Herb Carnegie play hockey, Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe stated he "would take Carnegie tomorrow for the Maple Leafs if someone could turn him white." In 1948, British-Columbia's Larry "King" Kwong became the first Asian to play in the NHL. Long before Jordan Nolan, Ojibwe from St-Catherines, ON, the first native player in NHL, Saskatchewan-native Fred Sasakamoose, stepped onto the ice in 1954. It was in 1958, over a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the baseball colour line, that Maritimer Willie O'Ree broke the NHL's colour barrier when he laced up his skates for the Bruins.
The long-ignored vestiges of disdain for diversity in hockey have been gaining attention nationwide, in the USA, and across the pond as hockey fans and foes band together to address long-standing pressures that still blight the game.
Subban stick to something your color knows kicking rocks in the plain fields if Africa.
— Snooze (@CrisSnooZe) December 28, 2012
The banana peel-throwing incident in London, Ontario's 2009 pre-season game forced the hockey world to hold serious discussions about the disparaging perceptions which endure. So did the vitriol directed at the author of a winning goal (a black hockey player) during the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
Herb Carnegie and brother Ossie's parents emigrated from the Caribbean to Canada in 1912. The Carnegies were re-baptised les Noirs and the Black Aces as they made noise on the ice while racking up several most valuable player trophies. Like the Carnegies 100 years before them, the Subban clan are a proud product of Canadian immigration and Canadian integration.
Never mind the naysayers: the values Canada stands for have seeped into our roster at the World Juniors. Canada will continue to prove to ourselves and the world that our multiculturalism, our diversity and our spirit of inclusion form a hat-trick that cannot be beat. Go Team Canada!
Follow Rachel Décoste on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RachelDecoste
They're not on the receiving end of racial slurs, being told the position has been filed when they arrive for an interview, being told 'you look like trouble', people crossing the street. The problem in Canada is this covert, implicit racism that is not talked about, where the majority is ignorant about it because it only happens to the minority
the NHL to publicly acknowledge "Black Ice" and the true history of hockey and the NHL still refuses to do so.
Whether you're a fan of hockey or not, I suggest we pepper the goalie's with tweets containing words of encouragement and support. If you're on Twitter, send him a tweet: https://twitter.com/SubbZero30. Most likely, he isn't reading any of the garbage or criticism online. It would be too distracting and would take him away from his work. So, while I love what Rachel wrote in this article (and it was well researched - well done), I suggest not bringing the article to his attention. Malcolm knows racism exists and he's probably faced it throughout his hockey career. Instead, I sugggest just sending him a tweet of support. Let him know that he's not alone.
There is something about organized sports that brings out the sweaty, dim-witted, could-never-be-jocks-in-a-million-years type that scream obscenities at children, hurl abuse at volunteers, and throw around racial slurs like flower petals at a wedding. In any other context, they would rightfully get the bejesus beaten out of them.
And these are the wonderous Canadian hockey fans Mr. Subban is winning the hockey games for?
What he should do is quit the Canadian team, join the Americans and shut out the Canadian team at every opportunity until he is a rich contented old retired hockey goalie. Serve 'em right.