Aliu blackface incident with the Colorado Eagles

[sureLoss]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackfa...ey-11576082222

Akim Aliu had been a member of the Colorado Eagles, a minor-league hockey team, for just a small part of the season in 2011 when he received an invitation to the team’s Halloween party. The team’s players, staff, management and even their families would be there.

A couple of days before the party, the Nigerian-born player was told to “come a little bit later,” he says. He didn’t think much of it, until he walked in and poured himself a beer.

That’s when he says the team’s head equipment manager, Tony Deynzer, appeared from behind a corner. Deynzer was in blackface, wearing an Afro-style wig and a jersey that had been custom-made with Aliu’s jersey number and nickname, “DREAMER,” emblazoned on the back.

Two years earlier, a coach for a different team, Bill Peters, had used a racial slur against Aliu, which resulted in Peters resigning from the Calgary Flames a decade later when Aliu brought it to light last month. In the moment at the Halloween party, he says, partygoers exhorted Aliu and Deynzer to pose in a picture together. Deynzer smiled. Aliu didn’t. In the background of one of the pictures, an infant crawled on the floor nearby.

“Guys just started laughing,” Aliu says. “All I can do is tell my story.”

Aliu says that what troubled him most about the incident at the Halloween party was how calculated it felt. In addition to the blackface and wig worn by Deynzer, Aliu felt he had been told to arrive late just to set up the racist taunt. And the jersey, with Aliu’s nickname on it, had to be custom made.

Aliu posed for the picture, opting not to cause a scene because families, including children, were present. He says he didn’t see anyone else who was black at the party, and he felt trapped. He was in shock, he said, and didn’t fully realize the gravity of the moment until he called his brother immediately afterward.

“I didn’t even grasp the idea of how vicious of a thing that is to do,” Aliu says.

Aliu played only 10 games for the team. In the weeks after the incident, he asked for a trade, which at first was denied. His stress grew so severe after what took place that he says he was hospitalized.

News Update

Ryan S. Clark @ryan_s_clark
Colorado Eagles trainer Tony Deynzer has been placed on an administrative leave of absence by the Colorado Avalanche.

The news comes after Akim Aliu spoke with the Wall Street Journal about how Deynzer dressed in blackface back in 2011 at a Halloween Party. #Avs

https://twitter.com/user/status/1204863136630657024

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Brutal.

[me_dennis]

Disgusting

[PsYcNeT]

#### hockey culture jesus.

[burn_this_city]

How dumb are these people? I don't get why it would ever be considered humorous, especially in 2011..

[Strange Brew]

What the actual f***.

[868904]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

#### hockey culture jesus.

This is not hockey culture, it’s just pure evil racism.

[Cycling76er]

What the actual ####?!

[devo22]

holy ####. Disgusting.

[868904]

You wonder if Iggy ever had to deal with this crap. I’m sure he did but just took the high road and channeled it ito beating the crap out of guys on the ice and becoming one of the best players in the game.

[burn_this_city]

Tony still their equipment manager, I bet he's in hot water today.

[EM11]

This is so brutal and depressing. Where are all those posters who said that one incident could not derail his entire career? What about now? How does a player perform to his potential after dealing with something like this?

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Tony still their equipment manager, I bet he's in hot water today.

I hope Tony has been crapping his pants and stressing the F out for the last two weeks just waiting for this to come out. Sounds like he deserves it.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by 868904

You wonder if Iggy ever had to deal with this crap. I’m sure he did but just took the high road and channeled it ito beating the crap out of guys on the ice and becoming one of the best players in the game.

I don't know about Iggy, but I imagine "the boys" didn't give Fuhr the nickname Coco because he liked hot chocolate.

[GullFoss]

Came for the Trudeau joke. Will come back later.

[SuperMatt18]

This is horrible.

In recent memory this is the most malicious use of blackface I've seen. This isn't the situation where it's just an ignorant mistake because you were dressing up as somebody famous for halloween.

This was a calculated plan to isolate a member of the team and make fun of him.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Tony still their equipment manager, I bet he's in hot water today.

But everybody on the team was there? They all knew about it all this time and did nothing?

Shouldn't it be more than just him in hot water?

[Looch City]

That's beyond terrible.

Can't imagine how trapped he felt at that moment. And then realizing you're the only person of colour in that room. Just gut wrenching.

[Strange Brew]

This goes beyond the equipment manager too. Why does nobody stand up to this crap?

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by 868904

You wonder if Iggy ever had to deal with this crap. I’m sure he did but just took the high road and channeled it ito beating the crap out of guys on the ice and becoming one of the best players in the game.

I dealt with a lot of racism in hockey. At one point I gave up and stopped playing cause it was mental torture. One of my family members knew the GM of the Flames at the time and asked if Iggy would sit down for a few minutes with me to chat about being a colored hockey player. The amazing person Iggy is he agreed to the request. I didn't know about all of this until the day I met him. We talked over a glass a milk, he told me some of the things he went through, and some of them were worse than my stories. But he used those negatives to drive him and not give up. I ended up doing the same. I definitely didn't come close to a career that he had, but I didn't give up on the game I love due to ignorance of others. I'm glad hockey is having it's reckoning.