http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/2008/03/09/2008-03-09_fifty_years_ago_willie_oree_smashed_nhl_.html
It's been over 50 years since Jackie Robinson first stepped foot onto a Major League Baseball diamond. Since then, there have been countless african-americans, hispanics, and other minorities that have played and have been successful in the MLB. And Willie O'Ree wanted to become one of those players.
For O'Ree, baseball was his second favorite sport. Growing up in Canada, O'Ree was able to play hockey and baseball without facing any hardships. But when it was time for the 21-year old to try out for the big-leagues, O'Ree was horrified to see the kind of racism that was prevalent in Atlanta, GA, the site of his first tryout. O'Ree knew this wasn't going to be his kind of sport, so he instead fell back on his other love, hockey.
In 1958, while playing for a Junior League team in Quebec, O'Ree got called upon by the Boston Bruins to play Montreal in the Forum. O'Ree became the first black to step foot onto an NHL rink.
But what precident did that set in the National Hockey League? According to the second article, only 18 black players entered the league between 1958 and 1991, and only one of them were Hall of Fame caliber. Grant Fuhr, legendary goalie for the Edmonton Oilers dynasties in the late 1980s was inducted in 2003. He won 5 Stanley Cups in 10 years with the Oilers, and played in the league for 15 yers.
In 2004, there were 17 black players in the league, which seems low, but considering the previous stat, is a step in the right direction. With players such as Mike Grier (first US-born black in the league) and Jarome Iginla (who is the first black 'captain' in league history), it seems more and more black players are entering the league. So is it racism, or just a lack of interest?
Studies show that in 1971, Canadians made up over 95% of the league, and only .02% of Canadians were black...You do the math. It seems tough to get African-American children into the sport of hockey. Is it because it is a very expensive sport? Maybe. Is it because it's usually played in cold-weather venues? Possibly. Either way, the current black players in the league have their hands full in trying to promote the sport to the African-American youth.
Besides players like Anson Carter, Grant Fuhr, Mike Grier, and Jarome Iginla, most black players in the league struggle to find identity, or are stereotyped into one of the NHL's less-respected roles. Georges Laraque and Donald Brashear have been known as league "enforcers" and have been known to be the dirtiest and meanest players in the league. In 2000, Boston Bruins defenseman Marty McSorley was given what was at the time, the longest suspension in NHL history, when he took a baseball-swing at Brashear's head at a game in Vancouver. Ottawa had a stand-out young black goalie named Ray Emery. But the young goalie became angered with the team's choice of starting backup Martin Gerber over him, and failed to show up to practice. He was suspended from the team and is likely to be bought out at the end of the season. So what is the NHL and/or the black community to do about this situation? Emery is one of two black goalies in the league (Devils backup Kevin Weekes is the other), and outside of Iginla, Carter, Laraque and Brashear, only Anson Carter, Dallas' Trevor Daley, St. Louis' Bryce Salvador and the Devilss Sean Brown are the only other black players in the league.
My questions to the class are, what is the reason behind this? Racism? The fact that the NHL is viewed as a 'white man's sport'? The fact that its prevalent in countries such as Canada, Russa, and Czech Republic where there isn't as many black people? You decide.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmhockey1.html
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6 comments:
I don't think I have ever thought of hockey as a racist sport. I just think of it as a Canadian, cold-weather sport. the statistic that the NHL is made up of 95% Canadians, and .02% of Canadians are black is really what comes to mind. The best hockey players in the world are from Canada and predominantly white countries of Europe. This is why you don't see as many black athletes on skates.
Hockey is also a very expensive sport. that should not limit it to white athletes, but in America the wealthiest parts of the country are also populated mostly by white people. It is just statistical percentages as to why there are lesser black hockey players.
MediaSport brings up the topic of black athletes having the stereotype of being "more athletic" than white athletes. I view hockey as a very athletic sport, so I do not think the stereotype fits in this situation. this "natural ability" should carry over into hockey, but it seems that black athletes do not have the same opportunities. that is why there is a smaller population of black athletes in hockey.
I don’t feel that Hockey is a racist sport at all; I feel there are other reasons why there are so few African American players in the sport. You have to look at the environment in which the athlete is brought up into. Most African Americans play basketball when they are young while many people who grow up in Canada, Europe or any place with a cold climate grew up skating and playing hockey. Both sports are fast paced and physical so it’s not like there are completely different sports, they are just played in very different environments.
Our handbook talks about how Black Athletes are stereotyped as having more physical ability while white athletes rely more on their intellectual skills. I don’t think this is entirely true because white athletes can play a very physical sport like Hockey and Basketball is a sport that requires intellectual skills and black athletes excel at this. So I don’t feel that Hockey is a racist sport but because of the culture and society of where the sport is played it is dominated by black athletes.
I agree with the other two posters. I don't think that hockey is a racist sport, just a racially unbalanced one. This unbalance is likely caused by a number of things. The predominantly white countries that most professional players come from plays a big part. As for American born players, where you come from in America is important too. There are certain areas of the country where youth hockey leagues are very popular. Kids are encouraged to play, and there is a lot of community support. These areas are often middle to upper class white communities.
To use a classic hockey movie...in D2: The Mighty Ducks, there ends up being a couple of black kids on the team. One of them doesn't join until mid-movie, and in order to convince the team that he and his friends play better than they do, he brings them to the inner city. There they play roller hockey in a fenced in basketball court, using trash cans for goals. When the team leaves, the group of black kids waves and watches sadly from behind the fence. One of them does eventually join the team, but only one.
This may seem like a silly example, but it's true that hockey is not as popular in the inner cities. Equipment is expensive and it's not often that you find an ice rink in the middle of a city.
Discussing increased coverage of African American athletes in recent years, Chapter 27 in the Handbook says, "Such coverage afforded Black athletes could perhaps be seen as indicative of an end to discrimination, bias, and racism in the sports media. However, it more likely reflects the African-American dominance of professional sport in America" (449).
Hockey is the one sport that African Americans are not dominating, and thus there is less coverage of the African American players that do exist in the game. Therefore, people don't see that there are Black players in hockey, and kids thinking of choosing it as a sport may feel that they will always be an oddball or that they will never make it pro because of their race.
So, I don't think that hockey is a racist sport, but there are definitely a number of barriers that could be keeping Black players away.
The issue of black athletes in the NHL isn't about racism it's merely about the numbers presented as there was such a miniscule amount of black Canadians involved in the sport. With this problem already in place, it's difficult to market the sport of hockey towards blacks because they don't see many of their own kind in the sport. The sport is very expensive and it makes it tough for any whites in urban areas to play much less any blacks that want to play.
In the "Handbook of Sports and Media" it states that "several studies have suggested that black athletes have historically been underrepresented in the sports media" (448). This doesn't help the situation either. The NHL should really try to market their big-time black athletes like Iginla. It's hard to know how much this would have an influence on young black athletes but it couldn't hurt.
Another problem is that the NHL is having a tough enough time marketing their popular players, regardless of their color. The league is trying to spread their game and maybe trying to overdo marketing for a player like Iginla would help across the country.
I don't think hockey is a racist sport at all. Yes, there are only a limited amount of african-american players in the NHL but it's not like the league is limiting the amount of african-americans that play hockey, its just that not many are playing hockey at the professional level.
"For example, remark that ice hockey has often been portrayed as having an "enduring link to the idea of 'Canadianness.'" (Wenner, 121)
The quote above is one of the reasons I believe there aren't more african-americans in the NHL. Hockey is marketed more towards canadians and white people, as I believe. I also believe the fact of the game being played on skates and the time consuming and hefty costs of playing hockey can easily filter who plays hockey and who doesn't. This can make it tough for people living in the inner city to play a sport.
As I think back at how the costs of hockey can also affect who plays I remembered that Philadelphia Flyers owner, Ed Snyder has a foundation where he personally takes 20-30 inner city kids who want to play hockey but are not fortunate enough to be able to play on a weekend getaway trip to northern NY and Canada. The kids learn how to skate and play hockey from the Flyers players, they play a game at a rink near Niagra falls before going to Toronto for a game and a visit to the NHL Hall of Fame, and of course the trip concludes with the group seeing the Flyers play.
In conclusion, I don't think hockey is a racist sport, the nature of how it is played and the high costs that people may not be able to afford are what may segregate the sport in the long run.
I think the stats that Steve provided tell the story about the lack of African Americans playing professional hockey. Most of the players come from Canada and a handful of European countries and it can't be denied that these areas have a small population of African Americans.
Furthermore, the game of hockey struggles on its own in the United States. If we're not even showing interest as an entire country, how can we expect the African American population to get behind it. The fact is, the American fan is much more consumed with the other big sports (baseball, football, basketball) because those are the sports they grew up playing. In Canada and in Europe, kids grew up playing hockey. Are there talented Americans playing in the NHL? Of course. But I'm sure if you studied where those players came from, you would find that they most likely grew up in a population that didn't have many African Americans.
There's no doubt in my mind that this issue is caused by Geography rather than any sort of racism or persecution. People are so down on hockey in our country that's it's hard to complain about African Americans (or any Americans for that matter) not playing at the professional level.
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