http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/02/14/mb-evander-kane-claims-racism-behind-criticism-winnipeg.html

OK, I like Evander Kane's hockey ability, and I'm not so naive as to not realize that some of the criticism he's received may be racially motivated, but by and large this isn't why he's getting crap from fans - it's because he's been behaving like spoiled twit away from the rink. Skipping out on a check (though he did go back and pay it and it could've been a legitimate mistake) that idiotic picture from Vegas during the lockout, complaining about icetime, an overly prolonged contract dispute, and now this comment. Most of the criticism he gets, I'd hazard to say the vast majority of it, is not racially motivated. It's motivated by the fact he's behaved like an immature prat.

Is there racism in hockey? Sure - just ask Malcolm Subban and Wayne Simmonds. But I never heard any negative comments about Oduya in the Peg, and any negativity directed Buff's way either has to do with his waistline or his boating incident. On my Jet's site Pavelec gets more flack than Kane does, due to his DUI and his lacklustre play.

There's not a poster on this board that doesn't have respect for Iginla, and that's because he's a class act who can play.

I think Kane needs to mature, and rather than sluff off his criticism as being racially motivated, he should maybe look at it more closely and try to understand WHY people are being critical of him. For the majority of fans, it's not because of his skin colour.

Yeah, we don't know what Kane has experienced in his personal life, but this seems kind of weak to me.  As you note, he's given people plenty of little tidbits to criticize and when you're the best player on a team in a hockey mad Canadian city, you're going to get criticism no matter what color you are.  It seems to me that Iginla has taken tons of criticism in the past 5 or 6 years, and I don't recall him saying it was because he's black.  It comes with the territory, expecially when you give 'em a reason.  Now he's implying that his critics are racially motivated, which would offend me if I was one of the writers criticizing him.

Terrific player..The picture in Vegas never bothered me, just showed signs of immaturity, much like Seguin did last year. Big deal, young kid who has a ton of money showing off. From what I've read, it seems he is the only one bringing up race, but who knows what he has dealt with, what he has encountered outside the rink. Someone needs to get ot him and just tell him to let his play do his talking, because if he does that, he'll be fine. 

In his defense, we don't know all of what might be being said to him on social media. As the article points out, the internet is a haven for bigotry. Just look at the way Bruins fans were painted after being eliminated by the Caps last year. Poor Joel Ward did nothing but score a big goal for his team and he was treated to the kind of hatred that should've been eliminated hundreds of years ago. I'll agree that Kane has done much to warrant criticism for his behavior and his recent play but I also don't doubt he's correct. There probably is a significant amount of racially motivated crap said to him through social media every day. Regardless of it all, I'd love to see him as a Bruin. I'd like to think leaders like Chara and Bergeron would bring the kid's attitude around. He's one of the few wingers I'd feel comfortable trading DK for.

I should've added, it seems he was setup a bit by Ken Campbell when he directly asked Kane "do you think this would happen if you were white?".

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In his defense I will say some of the idiotic criique he got last week for his haircut WAS culturally and racially motivated. I hadn't really heard about it until this article and went back and looked at some of what was said. Hard not to see the racially charged aspects in some of those comments, so on that one he likely has a point.

In response to kelvana33's comment:

Terrific player..The picture in Vegas never bothered me, just showed signs of immaturity, much like Seguin did last year.

Agree here but to Red's point when some older white jounalists that aren't around other racial cultures that much starts in on the way a black man dresses or cuts his hair that might anger the athlete. I would think at some point you won't hear as much from Kane as he gets older an wiser. So when some older twit jounalist makes a condesending comment with racial tone to it, Kane will just ignore it.

 

 

If Kane says "people are only saying I take bad angles on the forecheck and routinely give up my lane to make a big hit because I'm black" I probably shake my head and encourage him to do the same.  If Kane takes flack for anything about his image or anything that has any kind of cultural context, and he says it's because he's black, I give the guy the benefit of the doubt.  Some cultural norms evolve out of communities where there is a perceived ethnic or racial majority; those norms are sometimes lost on people who don't live in that world - things like the reaction to a young star imitating the posturing of hip hop or rap artists who make cash a prop, or personal style decisions deriving from "urban" culture.  There's a difference between applying the wrong cultural context and being flat-out racist, though.

I just saw Kane on TSN sportscenter explaining his Hockey News comments. He didn't go into detail, but just mentioned "the social media" is to blame. I guess that would be twitter, facebook and the like.

He said that if you have any complaints about his play, he can except that. But he says the comments about his shinny suit, picture with holding fistful of monies, bad haircut  is unwanted.

I would like to actually see racial motivated comments in writing from "the social media" to back up these very harmful comments from him.

We all know how wrong and ignorant it is to make or support racial comments. But it's just as wrong and ignorant to make allegations of racisim if they are not true and you are using this line as a ruse to cover up  immaturatiy.

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In response to Stuke50's comment:

saw it also and he was all smiles.

In response to dezaruchi's comment:

I agree with you, dez.  It was a leading, hot-button question by Campbell meant to get some form of reaction from Kane.  Campbell felt the need to ask it knowing race can be a touchy topic.  Somehow I think if the picture were of Patrick Kane posing with handfulls of cash he'd receive a similar spoiled punk athlete social media pushback. Only difference is Campbell would feel no need to ask him a race-based question.

In response to RichHillOntario's comment:

Bingo.....look for controversy and you will generally find it. Is sells papers and generates hits on the websites which is all most in the media care about.

If I'm really good at basketball and playing in Mississippi, I'm not driving around town blasting the Dropkick Murphys and professing my love for (insert white people things here).

I'm not trying to fit in there, but I'm not putting a spotlight on my differences and alienating the fans, either.

Kane is a dope.

(insert white people things here)

boxed wine?  pith helmets? puttees?  colonizing places? 

That's harder than it looks.

It's not like Kane was doing his Dennis Rodman imitation.  And there are enough white kids who adopt the same style (and who are typically called dopes for doing it).

In response to red75's comment:

Did you mean pk subban, Malcolm doesn't play in the nhl?

What makes this sadder is the fact that Winnipeg as a community suffers some of the worst racisim in the country. Kane doesn't help by calling wolf ! If he suffered racisim, please identify so it can be spotlighted and worked on.

In response to heyoo's comment:

No I meant Malcolm

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rachel-decoste/racism-world-juniors-hockey_b_2385693.html

And where did I say the NHL? I said hockey.

It's easy, Book:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

NAS: Seems accurate.  Thanks!

Why does anyone care what a 20-something athlete says.