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. 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. An unfiltered version will be posted on social media.Īs part of the campaign, rolls of black hockey tape with messages of support and solidarity printed on them will be made available for purchase with $1 from each sale going toward the HDA. Sponsored by Budweiser Canada, an edited version of the video (to meet broadcast standards for language and content) will be used in a commercial aired in Canada to promote the TapeOutHate campaign. The exchange proved so powerful it became the focal point of a two-minute video that debuted Saturday to launch an HDA campaign to eradicate racism in hockey. The stories were told by Aliu, Minnesota’s Matt Dumba, Colorado’s Nazem Kadri, Toronto’s Wayne Simmonds and Florida’s Anthony Duclair, members of the recently formed Hockey Diversity Alliance. Instead, a film shoot initially expected to last no more than half an hour was approaching 90 minutes when the director finally said cut. “Everyone was really worried - because, obviously, we’re not actors or anything and with the really raw material - that we would run out of things to talk about,” Aliu said.
Akim Aliu recalled how no one knew what to expect when he and four NHL players of color sat in a circle inside a dimly lit locker room and, with cameras rolling, were asked to share their most personal and painful experiences involving racism.
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