The Players' Tribune: Akim Aliu: Hockey is not for everyone

[Montreal Shadow]

Eh, I think he uses that a bit for storytelling, but he seems far from a Big Man Theorist to me. He goes out of his way at times to give perspective of the everyman.

Agreed. Sort of easier to tell a compelling story when the classic elements of storytelling are involved such as a protagonist, antagonist, goals, setbacks and conclusion. His objective is really to deliver historical information as interestingly as possible and having central characters make it easier to track and understand too. If he went the historian approach, his already long podcasts would be three or four times as long if not more.

 

[Voight]

Evander Kane, for all the problems he caused and all the issues hes had, is still in the NHL...... because he's a good hockey player.

Aliu couldn't cut it (aside from 7 games), it is what it is. Him bouncing around Europe is not a thing to be proud of, nor is playing for 27 different teams across 15 years.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Ya know what - maybe at the end of the day he wasn't good enough

He should not have overstated his production level or perceived contributions to the team. That was ill-advised because it left him open for distracting and utterly unimportant criticism like what you opened your post with (games played and points).

Boys, no need to try to look things from his false perspective. Akim wasn’t even wrong in his words, he was on pace to be 5th highest goal scorer on the team and the youngest at that by a couple years at that. You two write some of the best and objective posts, but this isn’t the time to try to give some credible notion to his perspective, that poster had none. He misquoted the guy too.

What the f*** were you reading then?

My thoughts, too. Guy pours his heart out and his stats get attacked. He even misquoted him. Good posts, bro.

I’m speaking with passion in my last few posts cause I know what it feels like to have to overcome huge obstacles and endure difficult tribulations and challenges. I ain’t black, but I don’t need to be to see how much this guy’s struggles from an early age ended up affecting not only his attitude, but perhaps life- lasting own self image and not deeply sympathize for the guy. We all go through difficulty. It doesn’t have to be the same for us to sympathize with one another. As long as it’s a difficulty.

 

[glovesave_35]

I made this point in an earlier post that evaporated (as many posts in this thread rightly have), but it's worth it:

Wayne Simmonds has been a very productive NHL player with a sterling reputation in every organization he's been in. The experiences described in his Players' Tribune piece from a few years ago are strikingly similar to those described by Aliu here--the loneliness, the feeling of being robbed of your humanity. Anthony Duclair and Devante Smith-Pelly have both experienced racist taunts numerous times in the past. Joel Ward and JT Brown, no strangers to this. K'Andre Miller, Givani Smith...

Basically every single black NHL player, and likely countless young people who love our game but will never reach that level, have grappled with this. If you can't see a pattern here...

Don't forget the Trevor Daley juniors story.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

I made this point in an earlier post that evaporated (as many posts in this thread rightly have), but it's worth it:

Wayne Simmonds has been a very productive NHL player with a sterling reputation in every organization he's been in. The experiences described in his Players' Tribune piece from a few years ago are strikingly similar to those described by Aliu here--the loneliness, the feeling of being robbed of your humanity. Anthony Duclair and Devante Smith-Pelly have both experienced racist taunts numerous times in the past. Joel Ward and JT Brown, no strangers to this. K'Andre Miller, Givani Smith...

Basically every single black NHL player, and likely countless young people who love our game but will never reach that level, have grappled with this. If you can't see a pattern here...

Great post. Thanks for showing me that. People think the successful ones are quiet cause they ain’t going through similar thing. Maybe they are like Akim’s captain Jake and want to keep their life earning and position so they don’t speak as vocally as Akim.

I personally know someone from one of the names you posted, they’ve told me horrific things that they have learned to just brush aside to try and make it.

Remember when Simmonds had a banana thrown at him during an exhibition game?

he said this:

"I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact I'm black," Simmonds, a 23-year-old Toronto native, said Thursday. "I certainly hope not. When you're black, you kind of expect (racist) things. You learn to deal with it."

That’s when Simmonds was one of the peak top power forwards in the game. He has to learn to deal with it. Or else he’s gone.

"It shocked me and (I) knew I had to keep going and get a shot off," he said. "It was certainly unusual."

he still scored the only shootout goal to win the game. ****ing sad how he had to turn robotic to completely ignore a horrific thing and still score and win the game.

look what he says after:

"It was unfortunate that this incident happened but I am above this sort of stuff," he said. "This is something that is obviously out of my control. Moving forward, this incident is something that I will no longer comment on so I can just focus playing hockey for the Philadelphia Flyers."

poor guy doesn’t even want to risk the idea of controversy and get kicked out of the league

 

[ArGarBarGar]

One race being affected by this more than other races doesn't mean it's racism let alone systematic racism. There will always be racism if this is the standard.

You are really watering down the concept.

It may not be "racism" in your eyes but it certainly isn't a positive thing when members of a minority race are disenfranchised, and it should absolutely be addressed and challenged whenever it is apparent. Whether it can be al 100% solved doesn't negate that, and it is very odd how much you are just hand waving it away.

 

[M88K]

You are really watering down the concept.

It may not be "racism" in your eyes but it certainly isn't a positive thing when members of a minority race are disenfranchised, and it should absolutely be addressed and challenged whenever it is apparent. Whether it can be al 100% solved doesn't negate that, and it is very odd how much you are just hand waving it away.

Would it be better to just say when members of a race? Or are you ok with racism as long as its not against the minority?

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Would it be better to just say when members of a race? Or are you ok with racism as long as its not against the minority?

For the sake of argument, fine.

 

[Dr Black]

I think both realities of "Hockey is a culture that actively embraces straight white dudes and not so much anyone else" and "he just wasn't good enough to play anymore" are both valid and correct.

This isn't a hard and fast rule -- POCs can be loved and succeed, of course. But the numbers suggest that it's a CONSTANT uphill battle

And the sport inherently (at least in the U.S.) is not accessible to many POCs.

Generally speaking, the sport of hockey is dominated by straight White males. If someone has a problem with that, why not just watch or play another sport? It's not like a non-White player cannot succeed and be well-liked. But you have to have a certain mind-set. That being that you accept the fact that this is mostly a straight White male sport, then go from there.

What you don't do is go into a sport knowing the demographic reality of it, then complain about every case of real and perceived bias or microaggression. Then demand the sport change to your idea of how things should be.

Instead, just accept it for what it is. Then take it or leave it.

 

[FormerLurker]

Generally speaking, the sport of hockey is dominated by straight White males. If someone has a problem with that, why not just watch or play another sport? It's not like a non-White player cannot succeed and be well-liked. But you have to have a certain mind-set. That being that you accept the fact that this is mostly a straight White male sport, then go from there.

What you don't do is go into a sport knowing the demographic reality of it, then complain about every case of real and perceived bias or microaggression. Then demand the sport change to your idea of how things should be.

Instead, just accept it for what it is. Then take it or leave it.

It's totally fine that the sport is dominated by straight while males. Nobody is complaining about that. But it's not fine that some of the straight white males (other players, coaches, fans) persecute the non-straight or non-white players. Just as there is no place for that at my workplace, there is no place for that in any workplace, including the NHL.

Telling people to either accept it or not play or watch the sport if they don't like racist behaviour is downright ignorant.

 

[daver]

You are really watering down the concept.

It may not be "racism" in your eyes but it certainly isn't a positive thing when members of a minority race are disenfranchised, and it should absolutely be addressed and challenged whenever it is apparent. Whether it can be al 100% solved doesn't negate that, and it is very odd how much you are just hand waving it away.

I am as interested in giving everyone the same opportunity to succeed as you seem to be. I question the need to qualify everyone by what race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation they happen to be.

 

[IslesNorway]

Generally speaking, the sport of hockey is dominated by straight White males. If someone has a problem with that, why not just watch or play another sport? It's not like a non-White player cannot succeed and be well-liked. But you have to have a certain mind-set. That being that you accept the fact that this is mostly a straight White male sport, then go from there.

What you don't do is go into a sport knowing the demographic reality of it, then complain about every case of real and perceived bias or microaggression. Then demand the sport change to your idea of how things should be.

Instead, just accept it for what it is. Then take it or leave it.

But why should not demographics be allowed to change? Hockey is predominantly white and middle class in all its countries but why should anyone not of that demographic background just accept that it is and take what they have coming for them? In soccer, black players had bananas thrown at them and were subjected to terrible racism in the 70s and 80s but are now probably in the majority in several leagues (look at France's World Cup winners from 2018 for example and compare with the demographics of France). If not the people behind the sport and some quite outspoken players had worked to change that, it would have taken much longer to change.

Of all the hockey players coming out of Sweden, how many have been of minority backgrounds? Johnny Oduya and Mika Zibanejad are the only ones who spring to mind so they clearly haven't breached the demographics barrier there either. I have yet to see a minority player here in Norway, unlike soccer where they are playing on an equal field as most others.

Maybe, just maybe there are powers within the game of hockey - at all levels- who would like to see the game continue to stay white and middle to upper class? The cost of playing the game will keep minorities out and the white male bonding thing will be hard to crack. Hockey is the only major US sport where whites are still in a huge majority and a lot of people would probably like to keep it that way.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I am as interested in giving everyone the same opportunity to succeed as you seem to be. I question the need to qualify everyone by what race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation they happen to be.

I question the need to ignore differences between peoples that lead to them being disenfranchised or discriminated against.

 

[lomekian]

Generally speaking, the sport of hockey is dominated by straight White males. If someone has a problem with that, why not just watch or play another sport? It's not like a non-White player cannot succeed and be well-liked. But you have to have a certain mind-set. That being that you accept the fact that this is mostly a straight White male sport, then go from there.

What you don't do is go into a sport knowing the demographic reality of it, then complain about every case of real and perceived bias or microaggression. Then demand the sport change to your idea of how things should be.

Instead, just accept it for what it is. Then take it or leave it.

And you think that is acceptable? Wow. That's like saying that because Basketball is dominated by heterosexual black men, all the white guys should accept a certain level of abuse if they want to play or watch.

WTF?!

 

[DatSnipeMatthews]

I am as interested in giving everyone the same opportunity to succeed as you seem to be. I question the need to qualify everyone by what race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation they happen to be.

It’s the SJW thinking: it doesn’t make any sense. Everything in this world is about oppression, and everyone is either oppressed or oppressive. My goodness,.

Discrimination is fine, as long as it’s directed towards oppressive groups. And it’s fine, as long as it’s liberal racism or liberal sexism. Joe Biden’s horrific, disgusting comments about ‘you ain’t black’ if you want to vote for trump or only picking a woman VP is unfortunately everywhere. Imagine telling a race of people that they aren’t black because they think differently than you. I almost fell over when I was reading that: and I was sitting down. A black person shouldn’t have to think a certain way because of his/her skin colour. What a disgusting, racist comment. And nobody cares because Biden’s a liberal.

For the poster you’re responding to: he doesn’t seem to realize that n=1 here.

 

[DatSnipeMatthews]

I question the need to ignore differences between peoples that lead to them being disenfranchised or discriminated against.

Stop looking at people as groups and start looking at them as individuals. And stop thinking the world is so oppressive. It’s nauseating.

I was born shorter than I’d like. I have anxiety. I wish my nose wasn’t so big. My head is huge. My hair is too straight and I hate it. My legs are really short. I have a hard time packing on muscle. I wish I were better looking. We all have differences. We’re all oppressed. Having a lower iq for example is far more indicative of life outcomes than race. Why don’t SJWs focus on that?

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Stop looking at people as groups and start looking at them as individuals.

I don't just look at people as groups. I acknowledge how groups of people can be discriminated against based on the identity of those groups. Focusing just on the individual and never on groups is moronic.

And stop thinking the world is so oppressive. It’s nauseating.

I never said "the world is so oppressive", I said that institutional/systemic discrimination/racism exists. Do you contest this claim?

I was born shorter than I’d like. I have anxiety. I wish my nose wasn’t so big. My head is huge. My hair is too straight and I hate it. My legs are really short. I have a hard time packing on muscle. I wish I were better looking. We all have differences. We’re all oppressed. Having a lower iq for example is far more indicative of life outcomes than race. Why don’t SJWs focus on that?

"SJWs" focus on a lot of things, but when people bring up racism there is a line of people looking to discredit it.

I do not believe anyone should be discriminated based on race, culture, looks, weight, etc (provided these things do not in themselves reasonably affect others in a negative way). But the player's tribune article is specific to one aspect of disenfranchisement and discrimination. Focusing on one at a certain point in time does not mean that you are stating that it is the only aspect that is worth discussing.

You have demonstrated time and again not to be willing to address nuances of these issues, whether it is race or other topics.

 

[lomekian]

Positive discrimination is a clumsy phrase that merely adds fuel to the 'newly oppressed white male' theory bulls*** . Perhaps it should be re-defined as equalising opportunity, or an equality pathway, because the entire purpose of the principle is to render itself obsolete, by allowing disadvantaged groups greater access to opportunity than if social inequalites were seen as unimportant.

Of course, it shouldn't simply be defined by colour, nationality, gender or sexuality etc, but sometimes focus is required to just crowbar open the door enough to undermine some of the barriers that exist.

The whole point of it to get us to a place where what you are born as doesn't define your opportunities as much as it currently does. Should we be finding more ways to increase working class white people? Of course. And one of the best ways to do that is to diversify the gatekeepers and powerbrokers and decision makers. Because the same people who have both the desire and power to limit opportunities for minorities also have the same for the working class white man (unless he can be exploited).

Frankly we need an intersectional approach with individually tweaked elements. The whole 'downtrodden white man' thing is a lie sold to less advantaged white people by those in power, to keep them from realising who is actually screwing them and how - its the same playbook as the historical persecution of Jews, just with different detail.

More diversity in postions of influence benefits all but those who already have power and cling onto it like dragons guarding their hoards, which is a tiny percentage. Every meaningful study on the subject concludes this

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

My hair is too straight and I hate it... We’re all oppressed.

What the f*** dude

 

[joe dirte]

Great post. Thanks for showing me that. People think the successful ones are quiet cause they ain’t going through similar thing. Maybe they are like Akim’s captain Jake and want to keep their life earning and position so they don’t speak as vocally as Akim.

I personally know someone from one of the names you posted, they’ve told me horrific things that they have learned to just brush aside to try and make it.

Remember when Simmonds had a banana thrown at him during an exhibition game?

he said this:

"I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact I'm black," Simmonds, a 23-year-old Toronto native, said Thursday. "I certainly hope not. When you're black, you kind of expect (racist) things. You learn to deal with it."

That’s when Simmonds was one of the peak top power forwards in the game. He has to learn to deal with it. Or else he’s gone.

"It shocked me and (I) knew I had to keep going and get a shot off," he said. "It was certainly unusual."

he still scored the only shootout goal to win the game. ****ing sad how he had to turn robotic to completely ignore a horrific thing and still score and win the game.

look what he says after:

"It was unfortunate that this incident happened but I am above this sort of stuff," he said. "This is something that is obviously out of my control. Moving forward, this incident is something that I will no longer comment on so I can just focus playing hockey for the Philadelphia Flyers."

poor guy doesn’t even want to risk the idea of controversy and get kicked out of the league

Crazy that he says "I don't know if it had anything to with the fact I'm black". Obviously it does.

And nobody questions the Peters incident with Aliu either. It's cut and dried, not open to interpretation.

But 2 things - It's quite clear, whether you think it's right or wrong, Aliu has some perceived serious credibility issues, first of all. Second of all, even his description of the event makes it clear it's his interpretation the Downie incident was racist, despite the fact there is nothing that you can point to that really confirms that. Not every event involving a black man being on the receiving end of something BS is automatically due to racism. That's where people seem to disagree. Sometimes people are degenerates to everyone. And quite frankly, that's my opinion of both parties in this debacle. EDIT - To be clear, I am NOT saying it's okay Aliu gets treated that way at all, at any point, regardless of what i think of him as a person.

It's unfair to paint every person here a racist because they question his interpretation of someone else's motives.

I would be willing to bet if there are any threads here regarding Wayne Simmonds' incident nobody pointed out credibility issues and nobody even questioned the motives (ironically other than Simmonds himself). Or Joel Ward, or Kevin Weekes I think had a similar incident. There may be one or two idiots that say "so what, big deal", but that's all. And you're right to think they're cut from the same cloth as the ones that threw the banana, or whatever. But I'd bet there is almost nothing but support for those guys in those threads. Rightfully so. THIS incident (not all of the ones he speaks of), is unique to me, as it's quite a bit more contentious than the others.

I'd also say nobody thinks this stuff doesn't happen in hockey. They'd have to be dumb as a bag of bricks to think that hockey is somehow immune to it, as it occurs everywhere. Is it MORE of a problem in hockey than elsewhere? I don't know. I certainly think it could be given the demographics. Some here have said they don't see it any more in hockey than elsewhere. As i've said previously, I don't think it matters if it's more of a problem in hockey or not, because as a collection of organizations with the power to do something about it, i think they have a responsibility to.

 

[PuckG]

Stop looking at people as groups and start looking at them as individuals. And stop thinking the world is so oppressive. It’s nauseating.

I was born shorter than I’d like. I have anxiety. I wish my nose wasn’t so big. My head is huge. My hair is too straight and I hate it. My legs are really short. I have a hard time packing on muscle. I wish I were better looking. We all have differences. We’re all oppressed. Having a lower iq for example is far more indicative of life outcomes than race. Why don’t SJWs focus on that?

Just because you haven’t felt the oppression others have, does not mean it isn’t as severe as they say it is. If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky but stop downplaying what others experience.

Comparing what you consider to be your trash body to racism is downright ridiculous.

 

[Dr Black]

And you think that is acceptable? Wow. That's like saying that because Basketball is dominated by heterosexual black men, all the white guys should accept a certain level of abuse if they want to play or watch.

WTF?!

White men in basketball or Black men in hockey shouldn't have to accept outright abuse.

However, in regards to hockey, Blacks, and other groups should accept the fact that straight White men set the tone. The same way I accept the fact that straight Black men set the tone in basketball and football. It is what it is.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

White men in basketball or Black men in hockey shouldn't have to accept outright abuse.

However, in regards to hockey, Blacks, and other groups should accept the fact that straight White men set the tone. The same way I accept the fact that straight Black men set the tone in basketball and football. It is what it is.

Set what tone?

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

Set what tone?

The tone of of throwing f***ing bananas at people, apparently.

 

[NDiesel]

Would it be better to just say when members of a race? Or are you ok with racism as long as its not against the minority?

For what it's worth prejudice and racism get confused by most people.

Racism can only occur from a position of power - white males are in the majority of positions of power which is why racism against white people is very rare, and why it is generally said to happen to minorities.