Read on Twitter
Don Cherry’s comments spoke for themselves. But then @jessieraeallen used her seat on The Social to lash out at the sport of hockey. Tweets from offended/upset people are still pouring in. I’ve got lots to say about what I hope is considered/included the inevitable apology https://twitter.com/lisalongball/status/1194483137415274496
First off, many people are calling on her to be fired, mostly as a reaction to the Cherry situation. Jess Allen won’t be fired, and I don’t think she should be either. Her comments were very poorly worded, but not irreconcilable
The most alienating comment is that in her experience, hockey players “all tended to be white boys who weren’t, let’s say, very nice.” Bringing race into the discussion does nothing to further her point, and is being used as a tool to shame. So, that sucks.
It’s already been pointed out by others, but if she’d said that basketball players “all tended to be black boys who were thugs,” the reaction would clearly have been much different. The inclusion of race in her rant only exposes a double standard, and doesn’t advance her argument
The most offensive part (IMO) is the insinuation that a family who spends $5000/yr on hockey is so unrefined and lacking in depth that their kids will be uncultured and one dimensional. What a load of BS.
Based on @jessieraeallen responses earlier tonight, I’m assuming that any future apology or clarification will focus on the fact she prefaced her tirade by saying that she’s speaking from her own personal experience. I would argue that this is pretty irrelevant in the big picture
If Don Cherry had prefaced his comments with “based on my personal experience” (and he essentially did), would that make the rest of his rant okay? Of course not
Comments that target a group of people, and also aren’t borne out of anything factual, deserve to be called out. There isn’t some hidden nuance that we’re all missing here
Hockey is far from perfect. And I think it’s totally crappy that @jessieraeallen dealt with players who were bullies in her past. But if that past is going to be the only thing that shapes her view of the sport, that’s not hockey’s problem. That’s Jess Allen’s problem.
Again, it’s brutal that @jessieraeallen had hurtful experiences with hockey players in the past. But if her view at this stage of life is still that hockey mostly consists of mean white guys, I hope she can recognize the impact that confirmation bias would have in this situation
Finally, I’ve learned the hard way that lashing out with something mean is really tempting when you want to make yourself feel better. But it’s never the right move, and almost always makes you feel worse later on. Hoping there’s a similar lesson that can be taken from this
