1. Been thinking about bystanders. The most upsetting part about Aliu’s story isn’t that Steve Downie bludgeoned his face and broke his teeth with a hockey stick, it isn’t the countless humiliating acts committed against a person of colour. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/hockey-is-not-for-everyone-akim-aliu-nhl

2. What’s most upsetting is the silence. Racism thrives when people allow it to. Downie may have wielded the stick but a locker room full of teammates, coaches and staff allowed him to do that. When his actions went unpunished, they practically encouraged it.

3. Downie’s actions made people in the locker room uncomfortable. But it was easier to say nothing, to just grit your teeth, look down and hope things change, hope that someone else does the right thing. This is the biggest sin here.

4. It’s pretty clear the NHL’s locker rooms aren’t full of Downies. There may not even be a Downie on every team. Instead, there are cowards.
Sure, guys dive in front of pucks, they get into bare knuckle fights, they play injured. They have THAT kind of courage in spades.

5. But these same people aren’t brave enough to stand up and say “enough!” Physical courage is expected in sports. Moral courage isn’t. No one wants to alienate the white teammates, the white fans, the white coaches and owners to protect the one black kid in the locker room.

6. People call hockey they ultimate Canadian sport and it’s true. Because while we, as Canadians, have virtues we should be proud of, we’re also a nation of bystanders. Why did we allow residential schools to happen? Why did we allow Japanese internment camps to happen?

7. Why do we stand by while thousand of Indigenous children are placed in state care where they face physical, sexual and emotional abuse? Is it because we’re evil? No, it’s because we are too scared to do the right thing, too scared to risk something with no guarantee of reward.

8. We are spoon fed this story about hockey the same way we’re spoon fed a story about Canada. That it took brave people to fight the Nazis, build railways that span a continent and conquer the icy plains. All true. But we also took a pass on some of our biggest moral tests.

9. Hockey is Canadian, it reflects both our most courageous and cowardly selves. Remember those Indigenous youth teams being mocked by white audiences? (Literally Google ‘hockey + Indigenous + racist chants’ and read the dozens of stories that emerge).

10. How do we fix this? Well, fixing it means changing the culture. If we were able to curtail fighting and headshots, why can’t we do the same with fighting? It is not incumbent on people of colour to change this, to demand justice. That’s asking way too much of them.

11. It is incumbent on the Geoff Molsons, the MLSEs, the white upper caste owners who profit from hockey culture, from government-funded stadiums/initiatives/tax breaks etc etc to do something. But they won’t. Because it’s hard.

12. So what about Crosby? What about McDavid? Their silence is problematic. I’m certain that a journalist will ask them, in a scrum, what their thoughts on the Aliu situation are. They’ll say something sterile about racism being bad. That’s not enough.

13. What about sports journalists? Well, they can’t force the issue if teams won’t give access to star players to talk about it. Teams also wield too much control over access, which is its own problem. I was frozen out by Habs PR for asking Molson a question on homosexuality

14. It’s going to take someone big, powerful, someone with a lot to lose but who’s universally respected in hockey to say “What Aliu described is disturbing and, as a white dude, I can’t speak to it. But let’s have an uncomfortable conversation. Let’s do something.”

15. I don’t see that happening. So then is it incumbent on the masses, the working class folk who spend hard earned money to take their kids to games, who buy the merch, who support the teams etc to demand change? Well, yes but what incentive do they have?

16. None of this will happen if we all sit on our asses and wait for someone else to do the right thing. If you see something, say something. If someone tells you they feel discriminated against, hear them out, show them compassion. If nothing changes, boycott the game.

17. I don’t watch hockey anymore. Covering it for a year, with it’s bullying culture and it’s coddling of millionaires and billionaires, was enough to turn me off the sport for a few years. But I’m not that passionate about the sport so it’s easy for me.

18. So if it bothers you that no one is saying anything, stop watching. Stop spending your money on the game. It’s gonna suck. Hockey is coming back and we need sports to entertain us after months of drudgery and death. But since when is it easy to do the right thing?

19. Finally, I met one of my best friends on the Habs beat. @EricEngels is one of the kindest ppl I know and he’s been with me through countless mental health struggles, through two visits to the Douglas Mental Health Institute, through my worst moments. I love him.

20. There are Downies and there are cowards in this sport but there are also Eric Engelses too... smart, kind, funny and empathetic ppl. I have faith that we can collectively aspire to have a sport full of Engelses. But we can only get there if we — the white majority — step up.

21. I don’t know how exactly but it starts by acknowledging the problem.

22. Perhaps a final point or two: there are opinion makers in this sport. Influencers who are virtually untouchable. If they want to steer the conversation about race in hockey in a productive direction, they can.

23. It's possible to perpetuate racism without being racist. It's possible, through our inaction, to allow injustice to thrive without being bad people. You have to be willing to eat a bit of shit from the fringes to do the right thing and I'm convinced someone out there will.

24. So if you're a hockey insider or if you're one of these few dozen people who has currency in sports media, consider starting that conversation. Reach out to people like @_shireenahmed_, pay them to consult, to find best practices, to make the sport more inclusive.

25. I'm critical of Canada and hockey not because I hate either of those things. I'm critical of them because I believe in the promise of Canada and the potential of our national game to unite us. This isn't about cancelling anyone. It isn't about censoring or policing anyone.

26. It's about being kinder, better, more understanding people. Being kind is punk rock af. It is the most hardcore act of courage. Being doesn't mean you're "just nice like that." Being kind is a decision you make to withstand pain, to warrior on in the face of negativity.

27. So if you're a power broker in this sport. Be kind. It's difficult and it requires courage but that courage, that willingness to humble yourself to the experience of others, to wade into uncharted territory and risk discomfort, risk embarrassment, to maybe get yelled at...

28. ...that courage is the stuff people will remember about you long after you leave the sport. No one will care, in the end, if you were the first to report on an exclusive trade/signing etc etc. They will care about how you made them feel, about how much of yourself you gave.