Former Hawks Daley, Aliu Among Hockey Diversity Alliance Founders
On Monday morning seven players announced the foundation of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Akim Aliu, 31, was a second round pick (#56 overall) by the Blackhawks in 2007. He has appeared in seven NHL games, all with Calgary. On May 19 he wrote a powerful personal story titled “Hockey Is Not For Everyone” for the Players’ Tribune.
Trevor Daley, 36, appeared in 29 games for the Blackhawks during the 2015-16 season after being acquired in the trade that sent Patrick Sharp to Dallas. He was subsequently traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Rob Scuderi. He has appeared in 1,058 career regular season NHL games.
This is just starting a political discussion. I thought it was agreed that this site was sticking to on ice Hockey talk.
tim w.
i totally agree. i have life opinions, which some of you will agree with and others not so much. but when i receive an email informing me of a new committed indian post i eagerly anticipate some banter about the sport and team i love as well as a respite from our world that is collapsing around us.
plenty of other ways to scratch “the life around us and what is happening to it” itch.
How is a post about former Blackhawk players not relevant to a blog devoted to all things Blackhawks?
Had this story not been posted here, that would have been much more conspicuous than simply reporting it as it is.
This story is consistent with every other story posted on this blog. It’s about the Blackhawks or former Blackhawk players. That’s always been the only criteria of what is posted here. No reason that should change now.
This is not political. It’s the Hawks helping yet another way to support the community. It’s political if YOU bring politics in. You can always scroll past what you don’t like
If you feel compelled to come on here and rant with the caps lock about how you’re going to vote because a couple former Blackhawks decided to do something good in the world I’ve got a nice ban hammer waiting to be put to use.
This isn’t political. And we aren’t “suddenly diving into politics” on “a sports website.” This is 2 former Blackhawks (relevance) doing something incredibly important to help support the future of the game and – SIGNIFICANTLY MORE IMPORTANTLY – interpersonal relationships off the ice. If you cannot understand why this is important to the game AND WELL BEYOND THE GAME OF HOCKEY, feel free to read & comment elsewhere.
The Captain made a very articulate, deeply personal & insightful post on Instagram last week. It was universally praised as being one of the best responses from a sports star using his platform to affect change.
These were his parting words:
“My message is to white people to open our eyes and our hearts. That’s the only choice we have, otherwise this will continue.
Let’s choose to fight hate and fear with love and awareness. Ask not what can you do for me, but what can I do for you?
Be the one to make the first move. In the end, love conquers all”. -JT
What Tab posted today about two former Hawks starting a Diversity Alliance is directly in proportion to what Toews asked of us last week.
THAT is another reason why it’s also relevant here.
Have a great day.
Kudos to them and hope it is a successful endeavor.
How is doing something positive for the game we all love deemed”Political”? Good on Daley and Aliu I hope hockey diversity has a ton of success. And Stefanie, I saw the Instagram post by Jonny last week also. He’s shown himself to be a good man. That is most important of all.
Sports is somewhat important and diversion from things is great but two of the most critical items of this generation are happening at the same time and they will blend into what is discussed at times, especially when they aren’t political or at least not intended to be.
We need ‘good news’ stories more than ever.
If you think this isn’t polical, you must be deaf dumb and blind. Why wasn’t this diversity thing done years ago then and not just now because of what happen in Minneapolis ? This is all about not wasting a good crisis to push progressive agendas. The Democrats say 9t all the time. None of this will change anything until you change the human Heart and Mind. Every single person on this planet has racial bias in them and if you say it’s not true, then you are a liar. People of color are just as racist as a white person, as an Asian person, as a Latino person….and so on. And yet, people of color get a pass on their racism. And I can bet there is not a single one of you that would go into certain neighborhoods …because white people are not welcome there….that’s called racism. The PC police has taken control of the media, corporations, and pro sports….open your eyes and just admit that it’s true. Why do you think PC is called Political correctness.
Of course were all biased due to our upbringing and even trans-generational epi- genetics. But thru self-awareness and growth we can look at where we are at and where we want to be.
I prefer to see this as a good story, hopeful and inclusive. Any person can make just about anything political. That’s easy to do. Your slant and outlook is different and that’s what makes us humans.