Evil racist White Ice Devils!...
“Evil racist White Ice Devils!...”
Well, at the risk of being, well, impolite, my first thought was: what group of young men is more likely to play basketball? To play hockey?
I’m sorry, but unfortunately, it’s true. First, basketball is nearly free, you just need a ball, and they are courts all over inner cities. So many more young black kids have the time and place to develop their talent and get really good.
Hockey is a much more expensive sport and parents have to invest a lot of time and money to properly equip their children and drive them all over the place for games, tournaments, etc. You’re more often likely two see two-parent families living in the suburbs who have children playing in hockey.
There is the odd exception; I can’t remember the name of the one black player in the NHL, but children coming from those circumstances are generally white.
The anthems for both Canada and the U.S. are sung at the beginning of games. And white athletes are probably less likely to care about the BLM movement. They may sympathize with it, but enough to cause controversy by “disrespecting” the flag(s) (the U.S. and Canadian flag)? I’m not sure.
Canadians might be insulted; they may not want to kneel for their anthem. It would be a complete mess and I bet the coaches and management are thinking about that and may have told the players not to go there.