National Hockey League is Mostly White People

The NHL Chicago Blackhawks Hockey Team is Racist

The National Hockey League is mostly white people but conveniently does not keep statistics on the percentages of ethnicities in the league. According to the NHL Wiki article Race and Ethnicity in the NHL “The NHL is composed of 93% of players who designate themselves as white“. USA Today says the NHL is “97 percent white and beyond“.

Considering their embarrassingly high degree of whiteness, it may be that the NHL and in particular the NHL Chicago Blackhawks will be among the last of racist sports teams to give up their unabashed racist ways.

Imagine a mostly white hockey team named after an Indigenous African warrior, with Black stereotyped mascotry and logos. Imagine fans in blackface and made up tribal markings screaming various white imaginations of African war behavior.

Sounds horrific, right?

Yet change African to Native and Black to Red, and this is perfectly fine with almost all white people

Many of those perfectly fine white people would be very angry and pout for extended periods if you dare suggest they are at best upholding, sustaining and financing racism, or at worst are just plain racist.

BBBut but but Black Lives Matter, I’m not racist in the slightest degree.
Yes. You. Are. If you buy, use and wear racist sports clothes and swag, if you watch and finance racist sports games and broadcasts, you are deep in racist doo doo. The NHL Chicago Blackhawks alone received $178 million in 2019/2020 season revenue – you pay that.

My brother-in-law is part Native and he is OK with this.
Yeah yeah yeah, 36% of surveyed Americans thinks they have Native ancestry when less than 3% actually do. There is also no such thing as part-Native. Part-Native is an immediate red-flag to bullsh*t. You are either 100% or zero percent.

My great-great-Grandmother was a Cherokee princess and I’m OK with this.
<Face-palm> There is no such thing as a Cherokee princess.

This honors Natives.
No, it does not.

Sports teams donate to Native charities, and finance/improve museum exhibitions.
Great but you can’t buy your way out of racism. No person or organization has the right to benefit and justify harm to others.

You Natives are making me feel bad for enjoying my favorite, legal and wholesome sports.
Good! Recognition of your white fragility is probably the first step towards eradicating racism.

This is what happens when you lose a war, spoils go to the victors.
OK, you’re a full-blown racist, go away.

Come on allies, get with it

Do I need to go on? No, I do not, the evidence is substantial. Google it if you doubt my words. Educate yourself. Mascotry and stereotyping Natives IS harmful. It IS horribly disrespectful of living people. If you OK with it, you ARE being racist.

You know I’m right. It’s OK, I get it. This is America, built with the blood, labor and land of Indigenous peoples world-wide. And still building and profiting. Everything you have been taught from birth to this moment has been reinforcing these wrongs. You can’t stop the world, but you can stop you. You can stop spending your time and money on racist sports and have more influence than your electoral votes.

Don’t be offended, just think about it and deal with it.

Thanks!
-Yehuda