Aliu blackface incident with the Colorado Eagles

[ComixZone]

This is why blackface isn't !@#$ing acceptable, and it never was.

[Manhattanboy]

And our esteemed prime minister is no better.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

Was Justin at the party?

oooh, edgy.

[Manhattanboy]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

oooh, edgy.

Ya decided to walk it back.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

And our esteemed prime minister is no better.

It's actually a fair bit different but let's not get into it. There's really no reason to.

[PepsiFree]

I know there are posters here that want to put things into neat little boxes and pretend that a player like AA is where he is because of his talent/drive/whatever alone and not because of things like this, but I hope this is another example of how ignorant and naive that position is.

Living through things like this, being targeted, abused, made a joke of, etc because of the colour of your skin, your sexuality, your gender, presents incredible hurdles that people don’t understand. It can impact your life, your job, your relationships, everything. But constantly people are told to get over it and work harder, it’s just a “joke” or you’re just being “sensitive” or whatever. But it’s bull####.

[mdubz]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

It's actually a fair bit different but let's not get into it. There's really no reason to.

Blackface is blackface

[troutman]

Hold me closer Tony Deynzer.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

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.

Wonderful post.

[sempuki]

Originally Posted by mdubz

Blackface is blackface

Context is relevant.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by mdubz

Blackface is blackface

Technically you are correct. But knowledge, motivation, targeting a person, etc. are pretty big differences IMO.

Someone dresses as Michael Jackson at a costume party in the 80s and does it with blackface is stupid and using a racial connotation (which is even unnecessary to pull off the costume). But I'm not going to necessarily ascribe any bad intentions. There is a racist aspect in the assumptions of the person about what makes Michael Jackson who he is.

Someone who creates a uniform of the only black player, with his nickname, plans for him to show up in front of everyone, etc, is way worse.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

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.

Don't want this to get lost on the bottom of the first page.

Thanks for speaking out about your experience, it shows great courage to share these stories, and doing so helps to show that these incidents are not isolated.

I do really hope that this does turn into a full reckoning for Hockey and it's culture. It's takes great courage for Aliu to share these publicly, and I hope that guys like Iggy, Simmonds, Subban and others make sure the NHL hears their stories as well. If not publicly then at least privately.

Originally Posted by mdubz

Blackface is blackface

All blackface is bad.

Some blackface is worse, this case is clearly worse than others.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Don't want this to get lost on the bottom of the first page.

Thanks for speaking out about your experience, it shows great courage to share these stories, and doing so helps to show that these incidents are not isolated.

I do really hope that this does turn into a full reckoning for Hockey and it's culture. It's takes great courage for Aliu to share these publicly, and I hope that guys like Iggy, Simmonds, Subban and others make sure the NHL hears their stories as well. If not publicly then at least privately.

The successful guys, like those, but also the guys who lost a promising career due at least in part to it, like Aliu.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Technically you are correct. But knowledge, motivation, targeting a person, etc. are pretty big differences IMO.

Someone dresses as Michael Jackson at a costume party in the 80s and does it with blackface is stupid and using a racial connotation (which is even unnecessary to pull off the costume). But I'm not going to necessarily ascribe any bad intentions. There is a racist aspect in the assumptions of the person about what makes Michael Jackson who he is.

Someone who creates a uniform of the only black player, with his nickname, plans for him to show up in front of everyone, etc, is way worse.

I think “When I was in high school I dressed up at a talent show and sang ‘Day O’ with makeup on,” takes the cake on this one.

[Wolfman]

Really?!

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by 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.

The jersey with "dreamer" on it as well is insulting and has to be demotivating as well

[Rando]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

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.

Iginla is an absolute unit of a human being, thank for sharing your story.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

It's actually a fair bit different but let's not get into it. There's really no reason to.

I'd agree the Bill Peters thing and Trudeau's incident are a fair bit different. But this incident and Trudeau's is a lot more similar IMO. Both guys are ignorant (or will claim they are ignorant) of what they thought was a joke totally crossing the racial line.

[bax]

Originally Posted by Aleks

The jersey with "dreamer" on it as well is insulting and has to be demotivating as well

I remember calling him Akim the Dream when he was with this Flames. Ugh this is terrible stuff.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

#### hockey culture jesus.

This has nothing to do with "hockey culture", it has to do with ignorant ass people.