The National Hockey League (NHL) was required to strengthen its anti-racism efforts and support several initiatives to do so. Such a request to the league was made by the Alliance of Hockey Diversity, created in early summer by black players to defend the rights and eradicate intolerance in their sport.
The topic of racism has become relevant to hockey in the light of the recent events surrounding the shooting of the police at Jacob Blake. This incident not only caused a wave of protests in the country, but also became the reason for the boycott of the competition by the athletes. On August 26, the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team was the first to refuse to play with the Orlando Magic, expressing their displeasure with police brutality and systematic racism in the country.
The initiative was immediately supported by other teams from the National Basketball Association, Major League Football and Major League Baseball, as well as tennis players participating in the joint WTA / ATP tournament in New York. At the same time, the NHL did not initially cancel the matches, and on Wednesday all Stanley Cup games were held according to the original schedule.
This reaction of the league to events in the country drew criticism from both the media and the players themselves. The black San Jose Sharks striker Evander Kane then said that the death of George Floyd was not a lesson for the NHL.
“To be honest, I haven't heard much about the attempt on Blake's life. It is sad; we're obviously talking about another unarmed black man getting shot in the back in front of his children. But, again, not so long ago, in connection with the assassination of George Floyd, we already had similar conversations about the need to continue the discussion, its development. Everyone wanted to get better, wanted to make sure we talk more about it and improve in the future. Unfortunately, here's a new example. This is also another example of insufficient attention to the problem from our league, our players and the media that cover our game, ”Sportsnet quoted Kane as saying.
Soon, the hockey player called on behalf of the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), which he created, to cancel the upcoming NHL matches to show that for her "human rights are more important than sport." As a result, Kane's position was supported by other players, and the league made concessions and agreed to postpone four games scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The Stanley Cup will resume on Saturday 29 August.
However, this is not the only claim the HDA has made of the NHL. TSN journalist Rick Westhead said the alliance has recently made a number of other proposals to the league that its members envision should help tackle the problems of racism and lack of diversity in hockey. On his Twitter, Westhead talked about some of them.
For example, HDA has proposed $ 100 million over ten years for educational programs against racism, social justice initiatives, youth scholarships and courses for functionaries and trainers. The costs of each team should be $ 312.5 thousand per year.
Clubs are required to increase racial diversity among their employees and contractors, ensure maximum transparency in the recruitment of minorities, and increase the share of costs for black counterparties to 10% by the 2020/21 season. HDA wants to bring the share of blacks in the staff of teams to 18%, and in the leadership of the league to 3.5%.
The Alliance also expects the NHL to publish HDA public service announcements on its resources, as well as to apply the organization's logo to the ice, where the Stanley Cup matches are held. It is proposed to temporarily repaint the blue lines serving to divide the sites into zones in black. HDA also came up with the idea of doing warm-ups in special black jerseys that can then be sold to fans to support the alliance with the proceeds.
Finally, the club owners want them to provide their arenas for use as polling stations during the US presidential election. Westhead notes that the NHL in most cases has not responded to the requests of the alliance.
The Hockey Diversity Alliance was established on June 8th. The organization is led by Kane and Akim Aliu, a former Calgary Flames player of Nigerian-Ukrainian descent, who previously secured the firing of coach Bill Peters for racially motivated insults. Initially, the organization set itself the goal of attracting children of different nationalities to hockey, so that hockey ceased to be associated with a game for whites.
“Unfortunately, hockey has earned a reputation for being the elite sport that golf once was. Our group will strive to create conditions for attracting young children who do not have such opportunities, or those who just want to know what kind of game it is, to engage in hockey. There are many ways to accomplish this. Of course, we will also have a department of charitable projects, which will be engaged in establishing contacts with different companies, finding sponsors, which will help create conditions for this in different regions, ”Kane told TSN.
Within days, the HDA began to criticize the NHL for insufficient work aimed at combating racism. So, the hockey player expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the league devotes as much time to this problem as it does to support other socially significant topics.
“The NHL can put up Black Lives Matter banners all over the arena and blow all the trumpets about it. Whatever they do, it doesn't bother me or the other members of the alliance, because the league did nothing to support black players. We pay and have always paid attention to these problems. But the NHL itself must organize a campaign dedicated to our problem. The League wants to lump all the individual issues - mental health, LGBT, women's rights - into one pile, while we are talking directly about racism. Their approach does not fit our purpose and what we are talking about. I am disappointed that nobody cares about the problem of systemic racism in our sport, ”said the San Jose striker.