- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 1
- 8
-
Sparkle (2)
According to reports in my hometown paper, the Toronto Star, Ontario-based hockey coach Greg Walsh was recently suspended and could face a lifetime ban from coaching junior-league hockey because he pulled his entire team off the ice when an opposing player called a black player on Walsh's team the N-word.
They were sent to the penalty box for two minutes, where “we were chirping each other,” McCullum recalled.
The other boy then called him “the N-word.” The referee didn’t hear it, so couldn’t impose a penalty.
The Austin Trophies coach benched his player for part of that period. But when the boy was put back on the ice the next period without offering an apology, Walsh was furious.
“In order for us as a team to protect our player from that, we said that we weren’t going to play and we went to the dressing room. Simple as that,” he said.
Despite the public outcry in support of Walsh, with many feeling that it should have been the other coach who was suspended for letting the hockey player continue playing, Walsh might still be banned.
In Canada, where hockey is not only beloved but our national sport, there have been a number of reports over the past few year of on-ice racial bullying and taunts between young White players and young minority men, many who have grown up idolizing the primarily white sport. As the Greater Toronto Area is exceptionally diverse, it is certainly not uncommon for young boys to want to get involved in a sport where, despite the general lack of melanin, is seen as almost a ritual in becoming a "good Canadian" (insert sarcastic smirk here). But with more Black, South Asian and East Asian kids picking up the sport, there have been more reports from players of racial slurs and taunts. Unfortunately, the Hockey Association decided to ignore the real reason why Walsh pulled the team off the ice and instead, chose to follow their rulebook and punish him for it.
The above story reminds me that despite all the recent online campaigns and the media’s effort to increase awareness of the effects of bullying, there has been little interest in discussing the cause. There have been several public initiatives to combat racism, but no one has looked at the effects race-based bullying has on its victims. We do not hear about the suicides, the depression, the inability to trust people and the ability to forgive. Instead what happens is a whole lot of denial: Structural initiatives might be effected, but still, no one wants to talk about why it happens in the first place.
I was bullied in both public and high school. In public school there were maybe three other black kids, and my first account of being harassed began at age six. I asked my parents for earplugs because I didn’t want to hear "jigaboo" and "ni#$er" on the school bus every day. In high school, there were maybe six black kids out of 800-900. Perhaps like the kids who presently face harassment because of their presumed sexual orientation, my black friends and I did complain to teachers and told our parents, and I’m assuming that there are also similarities in that nothing was done about it -- the parents were more concerned that future educational opportunities could be hindered if they got involved (and perhaps in relation to sexual orientation, maybe the parents felt more comfortable avoiding talking to their kids instead of protecting them and championing their right to be "different" than their peers).
Looking back twenty-plus years after my high school days, I can understand why parents might be reluctant in defending their children within the educational system -- but they do not realize how their inaction, whether on purpose or by accident, leaves a lasting effect on their children. We might forgive, but we do not forget.
But the harassment wasn’t just racial taunts or threats of physical violence. There was also an uneasy silence and a feeling of thickening tension that never seemed to go away. An absence of words that were anticipated, but were never verbalized. As bullies get older, they understand the power of insinuation -- how to convey a feeling without having to open their mouths. How taking the long and measured approaches to exert control over another’s emotions is more satisfying when it's drawn out and unsettlingly anticipated by the victim.
