I started a new class today called Critical Literacy, which is really hard to define people. Like really hard. But one thing I remember from the class is that we need to learn how to listen. Not just hear, but listen and allow other peoples thoughts a stage to be debated on. By listening, we allow ourselves to try to see from the other persons view and understand how their story is equally important and needs to be examined so we can fully understand an issue. If one enters a conversation thinking they are right, they will learn nothing.
Listening to each other forces everyone to think at a higher level; activating their brain and engaging in critical thinking. The thing about Critical Literacy is it is about giving power to the powerless, a voice to the voiceless, and giving the marginalized a way to speak up...but there is space for uncomfortable debate. My instructor said that the class was a time to try one different things and learn what fits you. If you listen to other peoples side, your ideas may change. BUT YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.
My views on something may be entirely wrong, but if a respectful conversation/debate is had, views can change because no one is feeling attacked. Instead, everyone is feeling respected and like they can look at everything from everyone's perspective to grow as a person. Listen, grow, learn.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Thursday, 28 August 2014
An All Female, Weekly Broadcast Crew
Today, Rogers Sportsnet announced all their hockey broadcast people for next season and only three women were on the crew. What would an all female broadcast crew for hockey look like? The idea that a broadcast could feature an all female crew and do one game a week does not seem crazy once actually looking at who has worked with broadcast crews separately.
Host: This is the easiest position to fill as CBC had Andi Petrillo hosting during the day for the Sochi Olympics and World Cup 2014 to great success. She knows how to handle a conversation and can set up a game quite well. She understands hockey and deserves a hosting role (hopefully she will get this with CBC in other sports).
Panel: Again, a fairly easy position to fill. It would feature two of Tessa Bonhomme, Jennifer Botterill, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Bonhomme was cut from Canada's female hockey team before Sochi and filled this role with TSN. She has a deep understanding of the game and analyzed the play well. The other position would rotate between Jennifer Botterill and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Botterill was the rink-side reporter/colour commentator for CBC in Sochi and was able to provide tactical insight and analysis. Campbell-Pascall has filled this role as well as colour commentator/rink-side reporter for CBC in the past and showed great improvement from when she started. Both would do well in either role. Both Botterill and Campbell-Pascall have family in NHL front offices, so insider information may be there for the reporting.
Rink-Side Reporter: Jessica Rusnak of TSN690/TSNHabs. She can interview players and get cliches with the best of them, but she has also shown the ability to ask tougher questions of coaches when the time comes. This would make her a fan favourite.
Colour Commentator: One of Jennifer Botterill or Cassie Campbell-Pascall. They can rotate positions every once and a while. Tessa Bonhomme could also jump in here.
Play by Play: Beth Mowins of ESPN who has no hockey experience but is a highly experienced play by play caller in multiple sports and with a little bit of studying, I am sure she could become a fine hockey play by play person. Linda Cohn of ESPN is another experienced play by play voice, who is also a New York Rangers fan.
Host: This is the easiest position to fill as CBC had Andi Petrillo hosting during the day for the Sochi Olympics and World Cup 2014 to great success. She knows how to handle a conversation and can set up a game quite well. She understands hockey and deserves a hosting role (hopefully she will get this with CBC in other sports).
Panel: Again, a fairly easy position to fill. It would feature two of Tessa Bonhomme, Jennifer Botterill, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Bonhomme was cut from Canada's female hockey team before Sochi and filled this role with TSN. She has a deep understanding of the game and analyzed the play well. The other position would rotate between Jennifer Botterill and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Botterill was the rink-side reporter/colour commentator for CBC in Sochi and was able to provide tactical insight and analysis. Campbell-Pascall has filled this role as well as colour commentator/rink-side reporter for CBC in the past and showed great improvement from when she started. Both would do well in either role. Both Botterill and Campbell-Pascall have family in NHL front offices, so insider information may be there for the reporting.
Rink-Side Reporter: Jessica Rusnak of TSN690/TSNHabs. She can interview players and get cliches with the best of them, but she has also shown the ability to ask tougher questions of coaches when the time comes. This would make her a fan favourite.
Colour Commentator: One of Jennifer Botterill or Cassie Campbell-Pascall. They can rotate positions every once and a while. Tessa Bonhomme could also jump in here.
Play by Play: Beth Mowins of ESPN who has no hockey experience but is a highly experienced play by play caller in multiple sports and with a little bit of studying, I am sure she could become a fine hockey play by play person. Linda Cohn of ESPN is another experienced play by play voice, who is also a New York Rangers fan.
Monday, 25 August 2014
Lost and Found
I once was broken, but now that I have carefully rebuilt my shattered confidence I am only frail. I was destroyed methodically in grade school. The world was unkind to me; taunting me about being...average. I left a classroom crying in grade 7. You know how bad it is to cry in school in grade 7? It's the worst. I was broken.
I changed schools after grade 8. I never told anyone what happened to me. How no one told my mom even off handily is shocking. I didn't make eye contact with anyone. Speaking up was hard. I was broken and I had to rebuild myself. I had lost the little girl who wanted to play football when she grew up and wore dresses all the time.
It was a hard, slow process that began with small steps. I joined the social justice group at school. I was in drama (a strategic move to make me talk to people). I stayed for lunch. I was still broken at first. I started making friends. Friendly kids would talk to me, welcome me into their world. Their world was one of friendships since kindergarten and memories. My world with them began in grade 9.
Slowly I re-found myself; still frail, but no longer broken. Carefully I made sure to not break myself and to build myself up. I learned I can give a speech with little planning. I talked to politicians and community leaders. I wore dresses again. I became healed, but my confidence remained frail.
I remember when I was confronted with a simple problem and I solved it without help (or tears) for the first time. That was this year. I am 21. It took me 7 years and much patience and tough love from my mom to get here. I did this though and because I know how delicate the balance is for me, I protect myself a lot. I don't expose myself to situations that could even dent my newfound, delicate sense of confidence I have developed. I have limited myself about what I will comment about on social media because I am afraid of taking a step back in my rebuilding.
When you make it this far after the bullies have won, you protect yourself, you make sure you will not be exposed as something that the bullies would have jumped on. Sometimes I want to say things about something but cannot because I am afraid about people jumping down my throat, telling me I'm wrong and making me feel like I did when I was bullied. I cannot deal with that. I cannot rebuild myself again with how far I've come. I stick to some social justice stuff that I have some knowledge of (Winnipeg's homeless and FNMI issues), sports, and history as a whole. I am safe with these. I can learn about these. I do not feel like anyone will make me feel bullied if I talk about these.
I like helping others, but I have to continue to help myself first.
I changed schools after grade 8. I never told anyone what happened to me. How no one told my mom even off handily is shocking. I didn't make eye contact with anyone. Speaking up was hard. I was broken and I had to rebuild myself. I had lost the little girl who wanted to play football when she grew up and wore dresses all the time.
It was a hard, slow process that began with small steps. I joined the social justice group at school. I was in drama (a strategic move to make me talk to people). I stayed for lunch. I was still broken at first. I started making friends. Friendly kids would talk to me, welcome me into their world. Their world was one of friendships since kindergarten and memories. My world with them began in grade 9.
Slowly I re-found myself; still frail, but no longer broken. Carefully I made sure to not break myself and to build myself up. I learned I can give a speech with little planning. I talked to politicians and community leaders. I wore dresses again. I became healed, but my confidence remained frail.
I remember when I was confronted with a simple problem and I solved it without help (or tears) for the first time. That was this year. I am 21. It took me 7 years and much patience and tough love from my mom to get here. I did this though and because I know how delicate the balance is for me, I protect myself a lot. I don't expose myself to situations that could even dent my newfound, delicate sense of confidence I have developed. I have limited myself about what I will comment about on social media because I am afraid of taking a step back in my rebuilding.
When you make it this far after the bullies have won, you protect yourself, you make sure you will not be exposed as something that the bullies would have jumped on. Sometimes I want to say things about something but cannot because I am afraid about people jumping down my throat, telling me I'm wrong and making me feel like I did when I was bullied. I cannot deal with that. I cannot rebuild myself again with how far I've come. I stick to some social justice stuff that I have some knowledge of (Winnipeg's homeless and FNMI issues), sports, and history as a whole. I am safe with these. I can learn about these. I do not feel like anyone will make me feel bullied if I talk about these.
I like helping others, but I have to continue to help myself first.
Friday, 15 August 2014
Head Down, No Eye Contact
It wasn't always this way. Actually, I used to talk so much you couldn't shut me up. And then grade 2 happened and I had to learn how to deal with a bully. I was easy to pick on because I wasn't from the area and I was smart. I almost refuse to see the bad in people. This is an issue you see, because you can be preyed on in school when you befriend the kids that no one else wants to befriend and try to be kind to everyone. You because a target for bullying. You become a victim trying to help other kids that needed friends. And you lose confidence.
I figured out how to cope. Keep your head down, don't respond and never make eye contact. Ever. Try to become invisible. Try to disappear. You never will, but you can try. You can tell the teachers, but they are powerless unless administration backs them. So you stay quiet in the halls and outside and hope that no one comes near you and does anything to you.
The name calling and the antics that everyone else laughs at and says are no big deal never stop and it starts to break you down. You leave that school for a new high school where you know no one. You make friends. They have friends already and you feel like a bit of an outsider, but you are safer and you can find people that have the same ideals as you. You are safe.
Then you leave. You have to leave and you choose to go downtown. The school is smaller; safer. You are in the program you want to be in, you are learning lots. And then you walk. You walk to the library downtown. It's big and it's quiet and there is free WiFi. You walk 5 or 6 blocks and people ask you for money. You don't have small change, so you walk. You pull your toque down lower you bow your head. You become invisible again. You use your talent to protect yourself and this time it works.
So you walk more and whenever you walk you see the same man. You sometimes buy him water or coffee. He sits there everyday, asking for anything. You remember what you were taught; people just want a drink and some food. They are people. You give him that sometimes. He never asks you, he never expects anything of you. But he's there everyday and it can be hot sometimes and he must be dehydrated, so you give him some cold water.
There are questions you want to ask. You want to ask them on different forums; ask different people. There seems to be no room for discussion though. No room for learning, for collaboration. So you don't ask, you don't learn because you're afraid. You're afraid that people will not hear you again; that you will be invisible. You just don't understand everything and you want to learn, but having a discussion seems impossible because the world is coloured in shades of grey and yet sometimes it seems to only be seen in black and white.
And once again you put your head down, your earbuds in, pull your toque lower and walk faster because there is no way to understand something with no discussion, no way for a young person to understand, so you instead try to hid, try to turn invisible. It has done you well in life so far.
I figured out how to cope. Keep your head down, don't respond and never make eye contact. Ever. Try to become invisible. Try to disappear. You never will, but you can try. You can tell the teachers, but they are powerless unless administration backs them. So you stay quiet in the halls and outside and hope that no one comes near you and does anything to you.
The name calling and the antics that everyone else laughs at and says are no big deal never stop and it starts to break you down. You leave that school for a new high school where you know no one. You make friends. They have friends already and you feel like a bit of an outsider, but you are safer and you can find people that have the same ideals as you. You are safe.
Then you leave. You have to leave and you choose to go downtown. The school is smaller; safer. You are in the program you want to be in, you are learning lots. And then you walk. You walk to the library downtown. It's big and it's quiet and there is free WiFi. You walk 5 or 6 blocks and people ask you for money. You don't have small change, so you walk. You pull your toque down lower you bow your head. You become invisible again. You use your talent to protect yourself and this time it works.
So you walk more and whenever you walk you see the same man. You sometimes buy him water or coffee. He sits there everyday, asking for anything. You remember what you were taught; people just want a drink and some food. They are people. You give him that sometimes. He never asks you, he never expects anything of you. But he's there everyday and it can be hot sometimes and he must be dehydrated, so you give him some cold water.
There are questions you want to ask. You want to ask them on different forums; ask different people. There seems to be no room for discussion though. No room for learning, for collaboration. So you don't ask, you don't learn because you're afraid. You're afraid that people will not hear you again; that you will be invisible. You just don't understand everything and you want to learn, but having a discussion seems impossible because the world is coloured in shades of grey and yet sometimes it seems to only be seen in black and white.
And once again you put your head down, your earbuds in, pull your toque lower and walk faster because there is no way to understand something with no discussion, no way for a young person to understand, so you instead try to hid, try to turn invisible. It has done you well in life so far.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Volunteers Needed
I got this email today.
Hello everyone,
For those of you interested in volunteering this summer we are running a 3 week science camp for inner city youth at the University of Winnipeg. This year, 15 different schools involved in a community wide program called CSI will each come to the U of W for one day to participate in fun hands-on science based activities. The camp runs from July 14th to August 1st, 2014 between the hours of 9:30am and 2:30pm. We will have about 60 to 80 kids a day between the ages of 4 and 12 so we are looking for LOTS of volunteers. As the largest program of LTS U of W, this is a major volunteer commitment but we appreciate anyone who can help out for 1 or 2 days or the full 3 weeks.
A CSI Camp information session will be held in the basement of Wesley Hall (0W01) on Monday, June 16th, 2014 at 12:00pm. If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping out please come to this meeting (feel free to spread the word, pass along this email and/or bring a friend or two with you).
Try to make it to this important information session!!!
However if you can not attend this meeting but are still interested in volunteering, email us back at ltsuofw.csicamp@gmail.com to let us know.
We hope to see you soon,
Hannah Eisenstat, CSI Camp Coordinator
Amarpreet Rehal and Kyle Strong, CSI Camp Assistant Coordinators
Ps. We would love to hear any ideas you might have about science activities, quick demonstrations or you-tube clips for the camp with respect to our 3 themed rooms: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For bonus points, try to think of a science name for yourself to put on your name tag such as Hyperspace Hannah, Adiabatic Barb or Atomic Amarpreet.
Hello everyone,
For those of you interested in volunteering this summer we are running a 3 week science camp for inner city youth at the University of Winnipeg. This year, 15 different schools involved in a community wide program called CSI will each come to the U of W for one day to participate in fun hands-on science based activities. The camp runs from July 14th to August 1st, 2014 between the hours of 9:30am and 2:30pm. We will have about 60 to 80 kids a day between the ages of 4 and 12 so we are looking for LOTS of volunteers. As the largest program of LTS U of W, this is a major volunteer commitment but we appreciate anyone who can help out for 1 or 2 days or the full 3 weeks.
A CSI Camp information session will be held in the basement of Wesley Hall (0W01) on Monday, June 16th, 2014 at 12:00pm. If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping out please come to this meeting (feel free to spread the word, pass along this email and/or bring a friend or two with you).
Try to make it to this important information session!!!
However if you can not attend this meeting but are still interested in volunteering, email us back at ltsuofw.csicamp@gmail.com to let us know.
We hope to see you soon,
Hannah Eisenstat, CSI Camp Coordinator
Amarpreet Rehal and Kyle Strong, CSI Camp Assistant Coordinators
Ps. We would love to hear any ideas you might have about science activities, quick demonstrations or you-tube clips for the camp with respect to our 3 themed rooms: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For bonus points, try to think of a science name for yourself to put on your name tag such as Hyperspace Hannah, Adiabatic Barb or Atomic Amarpreet.
Saturday, 17 May 2014
The UWSA and "Doing Right" by Kids
Compensatory Education:
Compensatory education a system employed by some districts when there is a group of students falling below the baseline standard set for all students. This can happen in many different forms including, but not exclusive to after school and summer programming developed to help lift students up to the prescribed standard. There is a greater need for compensatory education for families who are of lower socio-economic status. Compensatory programs can include trips to the zoo or museum, activities that students may not otherwise get to experience.
What's the Problem?
The University of Winnipeg used to run one such program called Eco-Kids on campus, a school year program. Eco-Kids was a science based program that was funded in part by Enbridge Inc, an oil and gas company. Then the student decided that it wasn't good enough to be providing students with an opportunity to expand their learning and benefit from compensatory education and that the funding had to be from an ethical business. I will concede that ethical funding is ideal, it should not be the end game. There is less funding available in general and when you have some for a program, it should not be let go of because of questionable ethics.
Furthermore, there are U of W students (some who are associated with the UWSA, other independent of them), who felt as though they should a) be responsible for upholding the university to high standards for funding of a program that they simply house. And b) felt like they were right to rob students of help in their education because they were attending a program that was funded by Enbridge.
End Game
Let's face it, Enbridge is a company with a terrible track record, but their small donation to Eco-Kids on Campus may have opened up doors to kids that those students never knew existed. Those doors may know be closed forever. It is easy to go to your university and demand that they choose to accept funding from ethical companies only, but that isn't fair to the students who benefit from those programs. These are student who may be living in poverty or not have much help at home because of the hand that they have been dealt in life. I am lucky as I have always had ample opportunity provided by my parents and continue to be supported by them to this day. There are many people without these benefits and that can lead to a life that is based in the cycle of poverty. The U of W found a way to help give students the opportunity of leave that life and because some of their own students decided that the goal of helping others succeed in school wasn't a great enough goal, these students may be lost forever.
Life is hard on these kids. Some have parents who are illiterate, some live in run down housing and don't have enough to eat. There is hope in programs like Eco-Kids on Campus and a few other ones across Winnipeg, but there aren't enough spots to accommodate all the kids who would benefit from the programming, leaving some out of luck. The loss of this programming is tough for many reasons. It is terrible for the schools and students who rely on the programming to help them achieve success; it is terrible for the workers who rely on the jobs to make ends meet, and it is terrible for the teachers who have to fill in the gaps that students have every year.
I am privileged and to be honest, there are many people who are privileged to attend university. There are some who choose to use this privilege to advocate for free post-secondary education, which is fair. But there is something disingenuous about advocating free post-secondary education and not realizing that even if the education is free it will not be accessible to those who are entering school with learning gaps and then having the programs that help bridge those gaps yanked out from under them because the funding isn't ethical.
Conclusion
The University of Winnipeg has tried to make school more accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to afford to attended university. They have attempted to help fill the gaps that exist in education in the inner city and the suburbs. They have tried and they have turned to other sources of funding to make some of this happen. The end should justify the means as I am not one who should speak on behalf of an oppressed group who is accepting these means in the name of hope.
Some students disagree and wrote about it because they felt like unethical funding was an unacceptable way to help fill a gap in the education system. I was good with one of the writers of the letter. She, like me, grew up in a nice neighbourhood where there is plenty of wealth. Like me, she never experienced hunger or a lack of support from school or home. She was provided with access to education and educational opportunities at a much higher rate than some of these students. What right do we have as citizens of this world to take away opportunities because the funding isn't ethical. Finding a different company to fund the program is a noble idea, but to ask that the program end because of where the money is coming from makes you seem like an over-priviliged person who doesn't understand that the end sometimes does justify the means.
Compensatory education a system employed by some districts when there is a group of students falling below the baseline standard set for all students. This can happen in many different forms including, but not exclusive to after school and summer programming developed to help lift students up to the prescribed standard. There is a greater need for compensatory education for families who are of lower socio-economic status. Compensatory programs can include trips to the zoo or museum, activities that students may not otherwise get to experience.
What's the Problem?
The University of Winnipeg used to run one such program called Eco-Kids on campus, a school year program. Eco-Kids was a science based program that was funded in part by Enbridge Inc, an oil and gas company. Then the student decided that it wasn't good enough to be providing students with an opportunity to expand their learning and benefit from compensatory education and that the funding had to be from an ethical business. I will concede that ethical funding is ideal, it should not be the end game. There is less funding available in general and when you have some for a program, it should not be let go of because of questionable ethics.
Furthermore, there are U of W students (some who are associated with the UWSA, other independent of them), who felt as though they should a) be responsible for upholding the university to high standards for funding of a program that they simply house. And b) felt like they were right to rob students of help in their education because they were attending a program that was funded by Enbridge.
End Game
Let's face it, Enbridge is a company with a terrible track record, but their small donation to Eco-Kids on Campus may have opened up doors to kids that those students never knew existed. Those doors may know be closed forever. It is easy to go to your university and demand that they choose to accept funding from ethical companies only, but that isn't fair to the students who benefit from those programs. These are student who may be living in poverty or not have much help at home because of the hand that they have been dealt in life. I am lucky as I have always had ample opportunity provided by my parents and continue to be supported by them to this day. There are many people without these benefits and that can lead to a life that is based in the cycle of poverty. The U of W found a way to help give students the opportunity of leave that life and because some of their own students decided that the goal of helping others succeed in school wasn't a great enough goal, these students may be lost forever.
Life is hard on these kids. Some have parents who are illiterate, some live in run down housing and don't have enough to eat. There is hope in programs like Eco-Kids on Campus and a few other ones across Winnipeg, but there aren't enough spots to accommodate all the kids who would benefit from the programming, leaving some out of luck. The loss of this programming is tough for many reasons. It is terrible for the schools and students who rely on the programming to help them achieve success; it is terrible for the workers who rely on the jobs to make ends meet, and it is terrible for the teachers who have to fill in the gaps that students have every year.
I am privileged and to be honest, there are many people who are privileged to attend university. There are some who choose to use this privilege to advocate for free post-secondary education, which is fair. But there is something disingenuous about advocating free post-secondary education and not realizing that even if the education is free it will not be accessible to those who are entering school with learning gaps and then having the programs that help bridge those gaps yanked out from under them because the funding isn't ethical.
Conclusion
The University of Winnipeg has tried to make school more accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to afford to attended university. They have attempted to help fill the gaps that exist in education in the inner city and the suburbs. They have tried and they have turned to other sources of funding to make some of this happen. The end should justify the means as I am not one who should speak on behalf of an oppressed group who is accepting these means in the name of hope.
Some students disagree and wrote about it because they felt like unethical funding was an unacceptable way to help fill a gap in the education system. I was good with one of the writers of the letter. She, like me, grew up in a nice neighbourhood where there is plenty of wealth. Like me, she never experienced hunger or a lack of support from school or home. She was provided with access to education and educational opportunities at a much higher rate than some of these students. What right do we have as citizens of this world to take away opportunities because the funding isn't ethical. Finding a different company to fund the program is a noble idea, but to ask that the program end because of where the money is coming from makes you seem like an over-priviliged person who doesn't understand that the end sometimes does justify the means.
Friday, 2 May 2014
The Silence is Deafening
Last night the Montreal Canadiens played the Boston Bruins. PK Subban scored the overtime winner. Following his goal Twitter exploded with racist tweets about him. Today Cam Neely stated that those people do not represent the feelings of the Boston Bruins organization. He is right, they don't. The Boston Bruins were the first team to break the colour barrier in hockey with Willie O'Ree, and has had many black players in their organization throughout the years, including Subban's younger brother Malcolm who plays for their AHL team. And yet there is one massive voice missing, one voice that means more than one organization and addresses more than one incident; the NHL.
The NHL has a program called "Hockey is for Everyone". They say that the game is diverse and growing in diversity and maybe it is, but their inaction as racial comments fly about on the internet speaks louder than any program they run. "It isn't our problem" the NHL seems to say. "Nothing to see here". But it is their problem and there is something to see here.
Black athletes are a minority in the NHL. Unlike the NBA they have a very small voice even if they band together with their voices because there are not many black NHL players. They need the majority to stand up for them because they do not have enough power to stand up to everything themselves. They need their teammates and opponents to speak up (and they have when asked about it), but they also need their league to stand up for them. Racism is not a Boston problem, a Montreal problem, a London Ont. problem, or a Pittsburgh problem; it is a human problem and it needs to be addressed on a larger scale. The NHL should be responsible for eradicating racism from the NHL, not any one team.
The burden of responsibility here should fall on the NHL. The NHL has done nothing. They have sat by idly as player after player has been criticized racially for doing their job. The responsibility falls onto them now to show that they care about a player who is being berated for being born a certain way. Thanks to their partnership with You Can Play the NHL has a way to deal with homophobia and they deal with it swiftly. Yet they have no way to respond to racism. The NHL responded to Sean Avery making unsavoury remarks about an ex-girlfriend and yet they do nothing as a player is attacked over social media for the colour of his skin. When Krys Barch was suspended for asking Subban if he "slipped on a banana peel", there was no sensitivity training and no counselling, there was a two game suspension and that was it. Sean Avery had to go to counselling and enter the NHL's behaviour program for his comments. He also got suspended for 8 games. Barch got one game.
They say actions speak louder than words. The NHL's lack of action in regards to the repeated racist behaviour of their fans and their players should speak loudest of all.
The NHL has a program called "Hockey is for Everyone". They say that the game is diverse and growing in diversity and maybe it is, but their inaction as racial comments fly about on the internet speaks louder than any program they run. "It isn't our problem" the NHL seems to say. "Nothing to see here". But it is their problem and there is something to see here.
Black athletes are a minority in the NHL. Unlike the NBA they have a very small voice even if they band together with their voices because there are not many black NHL players. They need the majority to stand up for them because they do not have enough power to stand up to everything themselves. They need their teammates and opponents to speak up (and they have when asked about it), but they also need their league to stand up for them. Racism is not a Boston problem, a Montreal problem, a London Ont. problem, or a Pittsburgh problem; it is a human problem and it needs to be addressed on a larger scale. The NHL should be responsible for eradicating racism from the NHL, not any one team.
The burden of responsibility here should fall on the NHL. The NHL has done nothing. They have sat by idly as player after player has been criticized racially for doing their job. The responsibility falls onto them now to show that they care about a player who is being berated for being born a certain way. Thanks to their partnership with You Can Play the NHL has a way to deal with homophobia and they deal with it swiftly. Yet they have no way to respond to racism. The NHL responded to Sean Avery making unsavoury remarks about an ex-girlfriend and yet they do nothing as a player is attacked over social media for the colour of his skin. When Krys Barch was suspended for asking Subban if he "slipped on a banana peel", there was no sensitivity training and no counselling, there was a two game suspension and that was it. Sean Avery had to go to counselling and enter the NHL's behaviour program for his comments. He also got suspended for 8 games. Barch got one game.
They say actions speak louder than words. The NHL's lack of action in regards to the repeated racist behaviour of their fans and their players should speak loudest of all.
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