EIn fact, December should be the month of good news for the battered ice hockey industry. The season in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) will finally begin next week. But now the DEL has to deal with a racism scandal. The Ingolstadt-based Daniel Pietta had insulted the Straubing African-American Sena Acolatse with a “monkey gesture” during a test match. The league banned him for nine games. “This incident not only hit the ice hockey player and human Sena Acolatse hard, but our entire organization,” said Jason Dunham, manager of the Straubing Tigers.
Racism is not new in ice hockey. Blacks were not allowed to play in Canada for a long time, so they founded their own league, the Colored Hockey League. It wasn’t until 1958, when the NHL was more than 40 years old, that the first dark-skinned player played there. And even today, more than ninety percent of NHL players are white. The situation is similar in other leagues, including in the executive suite and in the stands. The result: Hardly one of the few players from social minorities who did not have to experience discrimination. This is also due to the culture of “trash talk” – in ice hockey, getting your opponent off his feet with provocations is an art. What is often dismissed as a petty offense. This is how the defenders of Pietta are reacting. He is not a racist, he has supported campaigns against discrimination.
„Hockey is Diversity“
Just what are they worth when a racist insult comes to mind in the heat of battle with a black player? In the past, even that would have been waved through. Martin Hyun, former professional of Korean origin and founder of the anti-discrimination network “Hockey is Diversity”, reported racist insults at a game in Augsburg. The fans wanted to make it clear to him that “someone like me doesn’t belong on the ice”. The reaction of the league and the media? Nothing.
Now there is that in the case of Pietta, but that is not enough for Hyun, he calls for a “sustainable plan to combat racism”. The problem, however, is that it is not an issue for most of the industry because they have never experienced exclusion themselves. Accordingly, it looks on the social media accounts of most players and their new union. Usually it is teeming with sayings, hearts and biceps emojis. When it came to wage cuts and (missing) concepts at the start of the season in summer, there was a lot of discussion. Now on the subject of racism: silence.
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