Former NHLer and co-founder of the Hockey Diversity Alliance Akim Aliu has been very focused on doing what he can to help create a safe and inclusive environment for hockey players of all backgrounds since the HDA's inception.
While the NHL has taken a few baby steps in the right direction of ending racism in hockey, there is still a very long way to go before the end goal of total equality in the sport can become a reality. It was because of this lack of traction that the HDA decided to pull themselves away from the relationship with the NHL to focus on working at a speed more conducive with effecting the type of change the HDA is seeking. In other words, the NHL was not ready to dive in head-first, while the HDA viewed it as incredibly important to push inclusion and equality as hard as possible to turn as many heads as they could to really help people find the pulse.
On Friday, Aliu made a statement to CBC Sports on what he feels is a mediocre effort on the NHL's part to combat racism, claiming that he "can see right through" the league's current actions.
The slogan "hockey is for everyone" has been advertised at great lengths following the formation of the HDA, however, the fact that the league promotes that message does not line up with its current existing structure and the fact that there are very few players of colour within its ranks.
"It's just absurd to me how you can say things like that when your league is 96 per cent white. I don't know who they're trying to fool with statements like that."
Aliu believes that the NHL can do a much better job than what they have been doing at both condemning racism and raising awareness to it. With a platform as large as the NHL has, they do have a great deal of influence over a lot of people, from all walks of life.
"I think the first step is admitting that there's a problem. When you haven't admitted that you have a problem, how can you progress and how can you start to enact change?
"I can see right through what's going on with the league or some of the performative things that they've done. First and foremost, we still have owners in the National Hockey League that think that race is not a problem. We've had fans that we know of after the Matt Dumba speech in the bubble that had issues and didn't renew their season tickets because they didn't like the whole Black Lives Matter movement. That just shows what the fans of the NHL mindset is."
Aliu also raised a very good point in how he views the NHL's level of buy-in (or lack thereof) to what the HDA is trying to accomplish, the league is costing itself, not only an untapped pool of talent, being minority players, but also a much larger fanbase, due to the attention that would be brought to the league from cohorts who do not currently have many influencers within the ranks of professional hockey that they can relate to.
"They seem to think that whatever they're doing is working. But clearly, it's not because hockey is dying a slow death. It's the truth. We have a lot of sports getting close or have already passed us. And that's because we're not diverse. A lot of kids don't see themselves playing the game and we just don't understand how the NHL doesn't realize that the more demographics and cultures you get playing the game, that means that's just going to grow a pool of talent that's going to make our game overall better."
The NHL definitely does have a long way to go in both recognizing and addressing some of these key issues if it hopes to continue to grow and catch up to the competition. With time, perhaps a renewed partnership with the HDA could help them reach a much higher level of equity, equality and inclusion.
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