This isn't funny. Racism and bigotry are never funny. Not even when Archie Bunker was the reigning bigot on TV's most popular show, All In The Family, in the 1970s.
Racism and bigotry are ugly.
Racism and bigotry don't belong in classrooms, in church, in pubs, in libraries, in the workplace and certainly not in a National Hockey League game.
But bigotry and racism were on full display at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ont., on Thursday night, when a Bunkerite in the audience hurled a banana at Wayne Simmonds during a shootout between his Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Red Wings.
A banana. Thrown at a hockey player. A black hockey player.
It sickens me. It saddens me.
And I'm guessing it sickens Evander Kane, as well. Ditto for Dustin Byfuglien. And Akim Aliu, Kenndal McArdle and Johnny Oduya, all of whom are of color and in the Winnipeg Jets' training camp.
Is someone going to toss a banana at Byfuglien in 17 Wing Winnipeg's next road game? The game after that? Or will Kane be the target? Will it happen in the U.S. or Canada?
Up here above the 49th parallel, we like to affectiona ...
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Article written by Patti Dawn Swansson
Winnipeg Jets: Will Their Black Players Be Targeted Next?
September 23rd, 2011 by Patti Dawn Swansson Leave a reply »
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