Racism in Hockey

“Girl Unprotected” by author, and sports editor Laura Robinson; argues that if one looks at the culture of hockey, then one can see the way in which it appropriates the “hockey myth.” Throughout her essay, Robinson analyzes the case of David Frost, a hockey coach, who in 2004, was accused and on trial for sexual abuse; in order to demonstrate her argument. Robinson begins her argument by suggesting that hockey is a highly gendered culture, in which a great deal of pressure is given to women. Opportunities for girls to succeed in hockey are subordinate to boys in most small Canadian towns. The role for women in hockey is to be an object used to label the male hockey players.

While being a talented and dominant hockey player, James Marsh indicates that while “[h]e came from humble beginnings, [he] fought for the culture he believed in, by way of sport. ” That is, throughout his career, he recognized that the English establishment of the NHL treated French Canadian players unfairly and intolerantly in comparison to English players. This is especially distinct in the events leading up to the Richard Riot of 1955, a sign of the growing French-Canadian nationalism in Quebec and the eventual onset of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s.

Saul finds hockey to give him strength as he recalls, “I no longer felt the hopeless, chill air around me because I had Father Leboutilier, the ice, the mornings and the promise of a game” (66) … The passion Saul has for hockey in the quote exemplifies how he has made this his freedom from reality. However, things never stay the same, as Saul indulges in playing hockey he slowly realizes what the colour of his skin, his background, and his family had really meant to others. Despising the fact himself Saul learns, “[T]here were moments when you’d catch another boy’s eye and know that you were both thinking about it. Everything was contained in that glance. All the hurt. All the shame. All the rage. The white people thought it was their game. They thought it was there world” (136). This quote refers to the internal pain Saul suffers through racism during his spree for hockey and the worst part is his joy in it is being shattered so quickly, by the ravishing white people ending it all. Regardless the fact he is internally hurt; Saul develops enough knowledge that he recognizes the change in him after facing these adversities. After facing unimaginable problems to a child at such a young age Saul learns, “When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced

In March of 2012, a white power rally in Edmonton drew out a dozen or two members of the Blood and Honour racist group. They were met and peaceably challenged by hundreds of participants in an anti-racism rally, which was "coincidental" (Dykstra). Therefore Canada still does have lurking racism, but in its overt forms it is socially unacceptable. This paper will address the overt forms of racism evident in Canada, which include hate groups like Blood and Honour. However, it is the covert forms of racism and bias that threaten to undermine the social fabric of Canada.

Roppolo insists, “The real problem with the kind of dysconscous, symbolic, abstract racism that is perpetuated today by sports mascots… is that it enables very real, very concrete, and very conscious acts of violent racism that American Indian people still face in this country and this hemisphere on a daily basis”(228). This demonstrates how the mascot does have a detrimental impact towards Native Americans. People who are subjected to seeing Native Americans through these mascots already have fallacious perceptions of what Native Americans behave like. Due to this, people will start to react accordingly to how they feel the Native Americans are supposed to act due to the distorted stereotypes that are presented to the public. People do not even realize that they are acting this way towards Native Americans, because Roppolo claims that Americans have gotten used to being racist towards Native Americans for so long that it is now invisible, aka dysconscious racism(226). People do not realize that it is ingrained in them, so when they come into contact with a Native American they may perceive the situation different than what actually happened. Roppolo justified this by going on to add, “One young man had his brother nearly beaten to death - his skull cracked open, not just cracked - when several bouncers at a local nightclub had to control his ‘rowdy’

One interesting view by Douglas Hartmann in his journal article entitled “Rethinking The Relationships Between Sports And Race In American Culture: Golden Ghettos And Contested Terrain” said that racial issues in sport is; borrowing Stuart Hall (1981) words- “a contested racial terrain” (qtd. in Hartmann 241). The “contested racial terrain” is defined as “a social site where racial images, ideologies, and inequalities are constructed, transformed, and constantly struggled over” (Hartmann 230). In other words, sports have become a medium where the definition and limitation of racism created. This also means that the definition of racial issues will constantly change over time. Hartmann view is interesting seeing that he believes that the context of racism in sports are actually broader than we actually think. He did not agree with the simple view of because racial discrimination happens in our society, thus racial discrimination also happens in sports (Hartmann 242). He further delves into two interesting problems in stereotyping and biasing.

The controversy over the naming of sports teams after ethnic groups has been boiling since the mid-twentieth century. Sports teams in America, ranging from Pee-wee leagues, high schools, and colleges to Professional sports, have used any enumeration of nick names and mascots by which to represent their team with pride and sometimes even comedy. However, the lines of political correctness have been greatly and maybe even intentionally blurred in terms of the use of specific ethnic groups within team names and the use of the stereotypical image of those teams’ caricatures, the native-American in particular. Of the four major professional sports team franchises included in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL that do possess ethnic monikers, only two are of Caucasoid based ethnicity, whereas the other 5 are direct references to Native American ethnicity or stereotypes

“Girl Unprotected”, by Laura Robinson, was published on May 11, 2008. In this essay, the author informs the reader about the dark side of hockey culture in Canada. Serious, formal, and objective tones are used throughout this essay in order to create a negative tone without using negative forms of diction. This technique is used so that the writing shows no bias, however, has the ability to sway the reader's opinion. In doing this, the author keeps an objective, unwavering stand on the issue yet plays with the reader's sense of pathos and ethos. Pathos and Ethos are used in the essay as successful forms of rhetoric. Robinson begins with a second person point of view, connecting with the reader and enticing them to continue reading. Although, as we move forward in the text, the author takes on an objective, the first-person point of view on the court cases later described. The essay takes on an inductive form of reasoning and argumentation. This is proven in the way that the author discusses the issues of a small town hockey team and moves forward to discuss the coaches and players of the much larger NHL organization.

Sometimes it is easy to forget the game played on frozen ponds and backyard rinks, and get lost in the overwhelming professional sport known as hockey. However, we strive to remember that hockey became Canada's game because it made our never-ending winter months more bearable . The game gradually became a sport, then an entertainment industry. It seems like the lockout was one of the biggest news stories of the year. Part of the amazing nature of the game is that it's origins are fairly vague. However, we always remember that hockey is our game. It may not be our official sport, like lacrosse is, but hockey is what Canada seems to be most well-known for, and it continues to have immense influence on our free society, with its unique style

I would like to discuss the issue of race and ethnicity in sports. We will also explore the bigger questions. How much does race and ethnicity matter in the sports world? Are certain races dominant in certain sports? Is there a difference in how we treat players based on race and ethnicity? Does it matter? I would like to answer some of these questions and gain a better understanding of how much of a part they play.

A few years ago in Smalltown, CA a burning cross was placed in the lawn of a visible minority family. Although the media seemed shocked at this explicit racial attack and portrayed the attackers as a group of abnormal, twisted deviants, I was not surprised. As an Asian student who is writing her Sociology honours thesis on visible minorities in Canada, I know on a personal and academic level that racism in Canada does exist. Although explicit racial incidents are not a common occurrence, they do happen. Here at school, a visible minority student left the school when a car sped past her, while the young men inside shouted racial slurs. Two weeks ago The school paper published an article about a group of

Right now in the NFL the football teams are kneeling for the National Anthem. This all started with Colin Kaepernick protesting the police and the inequality that people of color in the United States in August of 2016. The players are protesting the injustices people of color still face in America today. The message that the players are trying to send has been misunderstood. Some have said that the players are attempting to disrespect the country, national anthem, flag, and military by taking a knee this is incorrect. Part of this confusion came from initial misunderstanding, then it grew even greater when Trump spoke at his rally in Alabama. The players are protesting systematic oppression against people of color, police brutality, and the

Many will agree that the root of the horrendous conducts stipulated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report is an old classical racism; but has this classical racism vanished or just done a cosmetic face lift over time? It would be naïve to think that the report in question had any impact on the basis of racism in Canada. Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada may have opened some eyes, but correspondingly, has not and cannot eradicated the source of racism, so as to stop racist based injustices from reoccurring. The probability of repeating such racism stipulated in TRC report looks feeble in today’s Canada, nonetheless a kind of modern racism which is complicated, hard to penalize, and is multi-dimensional, that has developed in the recent years, and needs to be addressed, exists. As defined contemporary racism is the

Racism in sports has been around of hundreds of years, but recently it has shown that it’s still a major concern that needs to be taken care of. Years ago, Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight boxing champion dealt with the hardships of racism. “America has come a long way since those times” said Johnson, describing how America has developed through the years dealing with racism in sports.

The idea of racism in English Football, particularly the Premier League, is nowhere near as old as racism in England or the rest of the United Kingdom for that matter. However, the Premier League is often times considered the world’s best league when it comes to football and draws the best talent from around the world. In the recent years, the league has seen a sizeable influx of players from outside Britain and Ireland, which shows a reflection of an increasingly commercialized game with a global reach. These incredible players are put on center stage week in and week out throughout England on the biggest public arenas and draw millions of faithful supporters to their home club’s stadium. However, even with an increase in the number of foreign-born players, racism is still very prevalent in the ever-growing sport. The reality is that football represents one of the tapestries onto which social achievements and problems, claims and counterclaims are ritually etched. The growing awareness of how racism is connected to football functions through a complicated framework which reveals it as a problem which is very much “out there” in wider society today. Racism does touch the game of football, its players, officials, and their millions of supporters and reinforces the notion that racism is still very ubiquitous in an England that is often times considered diverse and accepting.