Wayne Simmonds and the HDA fight racism short-handed

0


There’s a moment in the striking new anti-racism video featuring members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance in which Wayne Simmonds, the Maple Leafs forward, is posed a question: Given all the race-based hate he’s absorbed as a Black man scaling hockey’s mostly white heights, would he even deign to enrol his 2 1/2-year-old daughter in the sport?

Hockey in this country, of course, likes to frame itself as a birthright as much as a game, a sacred space where fathers and mothers dutifully tote sons and daughters to the rink in the familial handing down of ancient frozen traditions. But as much as Simmonds is a 14-year NHLer carved from a throwback mould, a knuckle-flailing son of Scarborough bereft of front teeth and beloved by teammates, in the video spot he offers up an answer to the question that goes against the tidy narrative.

“If I knew she was going to have to face the same stuff I faced, probably not,” Simmonds says.

Think about that for just a moment. Here’s Simmonds, a veteran NHLer playing for the league’s highest-profile team, saying that knowing what he knows about the sport to which he’s devoted his life, he probably wouldn’t want to expose his progeny to its racist tendencies. It’s a startling message. And it’s a fitting entrée into a discussion that Simmonds and his colleagues at the Hockey Diversity Alliance are rightly bent on continuing more than a year removed from the organization’s founding in the days after the murder of George Floyd fuelled a global anti-racism movement.

“Just because we spoke about it for one summer doesn’t mean it’s going to stop happening, so we need to continue to push it,” Simmonds said.

Indeed, for all the light the summer of 2020 shone on the ongoing struggle for racial equality, Simmonds said in an interview this past week that he’s saddened by how often he still receives messages from concerned parents of BIPOC children seeking guidance in navigating the racism that’s thrown their way around the rink.

“I don’t know how many calls I get or messages — weekly, biweekly, monthly — of kids being called racial slurs,” Simmonds said. “I don’t think people realize the amount that it happens. Especially the white people in the game, it doesn’t happen to you so sometimes you’re thinking it’s not happening. If you’re not hearing it, it’s something of the past, which is completely false.”

To bring that grim truth top of mind, there’s the #TapeOutHate campaign, which aims to turn the ubiquitous hockey essential — cloth stick tape — into a conversation starter.

Partnering with Budweiser Canada, the HDA has commissioned a design for tape printed with anti-racism messages. On sale beginning Saturday at ShopBeerGear.ca, and coming to Canadian Tire stores later this month, the tape is meant to be a statement of solidarity in a sport that needs to prioritize inclusivity. A dollar from the sale of each roll will go to the HDA’s outreach activities, which include grassroots programs and anti-racism education.

As Nazem Kadri was recalling over the line from Colorado this past week, the ex-Leaf experienced too many instances of racism to count as the hockey-loving Muslim son of Lebanese immigrants growing up in London, Ont.

“Some were more vulgar than others,” the Avalanche centre said.

Kadri said he coped by heeding the advice of his father and ignoring the abuse. Simmonds, meanwhile, said that whenever he was confronted by racism he’d think about the words of his mother: “She would always tell me, ‘Don’t react with physical violence. React by putting the puck in the net.’”

It was that sage message that occurred to Simmonds in a headline-making incident that’s also featured in the #TapeOutHate video spot. Back in 2011, playing a pre-season game in London, Ont. as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, a banana was thrown in Simmonds’s direction as he participated in a shootout.

“I still remember seeing that banana fly by me,” Simmonds said. “All I could think about was what my mom had said to me. I went down, I continued my penalty shot and I scored … So I was proud of myself for that. But at the same time, I was left feeling empty. I was a little bit scared of what to say knowing that all eyes would be on me.”

As a fourth-year player concerned he’d be blackballed from the league if he made too much of a fuss, Simmonds remembered being “afraid to talk.” When he did get in front of the media, he seemed to acknowledge the incident with a shrug.

“I guess it’s something I obviously have to deal with — being a Black player playing a predominantly white sport,” Simmonds said at the time.

What he’d say now, of course, is far different. Such racist nonsense is obviously something he, nor anybody, should never have to deal with.

“I would have demanded something more be done than what was done. I felt in all honesty that the NHL kind of turned a blind eye to it,” Simmonds said.

Which is why Simmonds and the HDA are continuing the fight against a scourge. As the HDA makes clear in the two-minute #TapeOutHate video, they’re in search of allies in the struggle.

“We’re only so many in this game. We need other people to speak up for us,” goes the voice-over. “Silence is not an option.”

Alas, as much as the HDA has formed partnerships with the likes of Budweiser Canada and Scotiabank, it’s had less luck building bridges with the game’s central power brokers.

“The HDA and the NHL don’t have a relationship, and I can honestly go as far as saying I don’t even think we have a relationship with the NHLPA,” Simmonds said. “To me, I think that’s preposterous. If everybody’s trying to accomplish the same goal, I don’t understand why the NHL is not involved with what we’re doing. It makes no sense to me.”

It’s not the only disconnect between the game’s old guard and its BIPOC reality.

Thinking back to the question that was posed to him in the filming of the #TapeOutHate video, Simmonds said it made him “extremely sad” to ponder a future in which he might actively discourage his daughter, Kori, from following him into the game on account of hockey’s racism. Which is not to say he’s ruled out the possibility, if Kori is ever so inclined. She’s already been on the ice and got a set of starter blades for Christmas from Simmonds’s mother.

“Let’s be honest. As parents, we’re going to let our children do whatever they want to do, and we’re going to support them wholeheartedly,” Simmonds said. “But when I was answering that question, it just hit home. The things I’ve gone through, I would never want to put my child through. But at the same time, if hockey was truly what she wanted to do, obviously I would wholeheartedly support it.”

Wholeheartedly support her while nobly working to make hockey a better place before she arrives. If Simmonds and the HDA are looking for allies, here’s hoping they find a nation willing to tape up its sticks as it takes up the fight.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.





Source link

Denial of responsibility! Planetconcerns is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a comment