On speaking out, listening and the need for reform. TSNBobMcKenzie writes:
In these troubled times, I’ve heard over and over how important it is to find your voice; to speak out against racial injustice.Because what happens if those voices calling out for justice are repeatedly ignored?
As fate would have it, in the time between the day black man Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down by two white men while Arbery was jogging just outside of Brunswick, Ga., and the day Floyd died with a policeman’s knee on his neck, I had an opportunity to much better understand racism and white privilege up close and personal.
I wanted to talk to these two particular black men, both born in 1956, because they are exactly the same age as me. I didn’t know them personally when we were all growing up in Scarborough, but I most certainly knew of them. We shared so much in common – the same neighbourhoods; the same rinks; many of the same teammates and opponents – but our experiences could not have been more different.
Could anyone honestly say otherwise? Now? Or ever, for that matter? The killing of Floyd has spoken truth to it like never before.Floyd’s death has become a tipping point, with week-long nationwide protests in the United States. In addition to peaceful protests, some of which have turned violent, there has been rioting and looting. Extremists, agitators and opportunists, on the left and the right, black and white, have apparently infiltrated the crowds of peaceful protesters.
If you’re suggesting the protests should only ever be peaceful in nature, let’s hope you weren’t amongst those calling Colin Kaepernick or other black NFL players “sons of bitches” for taking a knee during the anthem to peacefully protest police brutality. A protest, obviously, that fell on deaf ears for so many.
And there have been black NHL players – J.T. Brown, Evander Kane and most recently Akim Aliu, amongst so many others – who for years have been taking stands, sounding alarms and speaking out on their own experiences and the truth about racism in hockey.
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