Hockey Isn't For Everyone: New York Islanders Edition
(NOTE: This article was supposed to have been released to hold everyone over while I was on break from writing. Then Johnny Gaudreau was killed and I forgot I had this article ready to be released. So, this article isn’t timely anymore, but I had already finished it, and since I just remembered it exists, I’m releasing it now. I am currently working on a more timely “News Roundup” article that will be released soon.)
Even though these are the articles that have grown this newsletter the most, I truly hope for a day where I never have to write another “Hockey Isn’t For Everyone” article. Unfortunately, today I’m back with another installment of "Hockey Isn't For Everyone" because hockey cannot stop being racist. This time it’s the New York Islanders thanks to Lou Lamoriello.
So, Anthony Duclair was finally forced to chop his dreads thanks to an outdated racist “respectability” policy that Lamoriello has used since the 80s. Yes, it is racist. So, how are respectability rules racist? Well, it goes back to the 1700s. South Carolina in particular. It was the “Negro Act” which is believed to be the first dress code, er, law, that said black people could not dress “above their condition”. British people considered black hair to be closer to sheep wool than actual human hair. Well, eventually, things changed and that law went down (but not the attitudes that created that law), and then black people were targeted for not grooming themselves like white people. Never mind it was illegal for them to groom themselves like white folk because racism must never die. So now, it was illegal for black folk to not groom themselves like white folk. Then, because of their trauma due to slavery, Jim Crow, modern-day mass incarceration, and many other horrible things white people have done to them, they have inevitably created their own culture. White people either try to appropriate that culture or are just straight-up disgusted by it and want it gone.
Hairstyles are frankly, racialized in the West. There’s a reason why black folk do different hairstyles. They had to. It’s a part of their culture. There’s a really good article from El País that breaks down just how important hairstyles can be for a culture. I recommend giving it a read. Hair is an important part of culture and one’s identity. Our society, especially areas that have traditionally been white, like hockey, is not built with black people in mind. Respectability codes are a perfect example of that. Research has been done showing how grooming standards like this inflict physical, psychological, and economic harm on black folk. This isn’t a new revelation. It’s known that codes like the one Lou Lamoriello enforces cause harm. These codes always enforce “looking white”, aka, anything that doesn’t look at all like something a black person would do. White people are never harmed by these dress codes or whatever. It’s always people of color. Each and every time. These codes are made with white people in mind and white people only. Anthony Duclair is just the latest.
Furthermore, requiring this hairstyle isn’t just racist, it’s also illegal thanks to the Crown Act. For those who don’t know: the Crown Act prohibits race-neutral grooming codes in schools, workplaces, and public spaces. It doesn’t matter if Duclair is fine with it (as Campbell claims he is). The creation of these rules started with racist intent and has never moved away from enforcing white styles of grooming oneself. Whiteness is always preferred to blackness. If you think dreadlocks or cornrows are “unprofessional”, that’s just your whiteness (that is, racism) speaking. There is no real argument to be made that black styles of hair and clothing could be unprofessional. There’s just none. All you’re saying if you think that is that you see blackness as something lesser. That’s it. Period. End of story.
At the end of the day: you cannot argue in good faith that rules that force Duclair to cut his hair aren’t racist. From day one, literally day one, such grooming codes have been designed to punish black people. Today, most white people don’t even think about it. It’s just so normal that white folk refuse to see the inherent racism in them. The sooner that codes enforced by folk like Lamoriello are gone, the better. Hockey will never be for everyone until it includes black culture, which includes hairstyles.
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