I guess it further shows where their heart lies on these issues. What’s disappointing to HDA members is the NHL declining an invitation to be involved.ĭumba questioned the league’s lack of interest by noting the campaign’s potential to broaden hockey’s base. “To be completely honest, they’ve kept their word from Day 1.”
“We were never going to sugarcoat anything and never do anything that’s performative,” Aliu said.
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“We hear those stories, we hear the struggle that the best players at the professional level are going through, and we want to be on the right side of the conversation and change.”Īliu helped oversee the project, and the former NHL player said he would never have teamed with any sponsor with an intent to water down the message. I think it’s about our partnership, really about the HDA gaining and the hockey world getting to a better place is the goal of this,” he added. “The intent of this campaign is not Budweiser gaining. “We believe that we need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable because that’s ultimately how we grow, learn, change and evolve,” Budweiser Canada senior director Mike D’Agostini said. The man was fined $200.īudweiser Canada approached the HDA a year ago with its vision of the ad, with an emphasis on sending a strong message. Simmonds responds by referring to his daughter: “If I knew she was going to have to face the same stuff I faced, probably not.”Ī 14-year NHL veteran, Simmonds was entering his third season with Los Angeles in 2011 when someone threw a banana on the ice during an exhibition game in London, Ontario. What follows in the unfiltered version is a disclaimer and then actual slurs HDA players have endured on social media, text and direct messages from so-called fans.ĭuring the locker room discussion, Dumba questions why any of them would want their child to play hockey. “Racism, ignorance, hate, it has no place in our game,” Dumba says in opening the video. The allegations proved true, leading to Peters resigning as coach of the Calgary Flames.
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The cultural shift began in November 2019, when Aliu posted a series of tweets accusing his former minor league coach, Bill Peters, of directing racial slurs at him a decade earlier. What’s changed are those within the game willing to speak out. “I hope it is a beacon of hope for the younger generation.” “It’s disheartening that kids are having to go through this and feel that sense of loneliness and not know where to fit,” Dumba said. It’s also a message Dumba wanted to share with those dealing with similar experiences: to know they are not alone. “Every guy in our group, you start talking about some of the stuff you lived, and it’s bringing out more stuff that you just had buried for so long.” “I think it’s standing up for our younger selves, you know, the 10, 11, 12-year-old Matt Dumba, knowing how confused he was by all of it, and how hurt he was at a time,” said Dumba, the first NHL player to take a knee in protest of Floyd’s death. With his mother Filipino, he was the target of racial slurs growing up in Saskatchewan because he has darker skin. This campaign represents its next step in raising awareness of racism in hockey, while at the same time seeking to make the predominantly white sport more accessible to minorities.ĭumba found the discussion empowering. The alliance was formed by current and former NHL players of color in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.