Photos of Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane and Adam Burish on Halloween surfaced on the web this week. Kane portraying Scottie Pippen and Burish as Dennis Rodman:
(Burish on left)
Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports blogs today about the response from the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, which he writes, “has decided to turn this manufactured controversy into a cottage industry of content. Along with Wilkins’s piece, the Blackhawks photo has been blogged about in at least three other places on the publication’s Web site.“
Staffers didn’t start ripping away until a Tribune “social media intern” named Ernest Wilkins, who is black, wrote: “It’s interesting being a Black (feel free to sub in Latino/Woman/actual Penguin at your will) hockey fan sometimes. We don’t see a lot of players that look like us, and we want more people out there to look up to on the ice. Stuff like this doesn’t help.”
So if a hockey fan is black, those costumes are going to change their perception of the sport they love and follow?
It’s insulting for Wilkins to suggest that anyone would base their affinity for a professional sport on the Halloween costumes NHL players wear - racially insensitive or not.
I think black sports fans are a lot more discriminating then that. Isn’t it time we started to give them some credit?
4:01 pm on November 4th, 2009
hi. black sports/hockey fan here.
he didnt suggest black sports fans are basing which sports they like on what halloween costumes players wear.
sounds to me like he was suggesting that when youre a culturally monochrome sports league that’s looking to grow its lagging US fan base, having your league’s running around like idiots in blackface is probably not a good idea.
i dont need your selective “pc run amok” ass covering to tell me what an athlete acting like at least an idiot if not more is.
isnt it time you (updated the sbb girls and) gave me a bit of credit?
4:03 pm on November 4th, 2009
“league’s players dressing in blackface” i meant to say there sorry…
6:06 pm on November 4th, 2009
I don’t like the NBA…there’s not enough players who look like me. Gimme a break!
8:48 am on November 5th, 2009
So I disrespected Barney by dressing in PurpleFace for Halloween. Give me a break. It’s halloween people. Is there a golden rule a white person can’t dress up as a black person. It’s a sad day in America when you can’t be a character you choose for halloween.
1:54 pm on November 5th, 2009
The nerve of those cracker hockey players. You’ll never find a Wayans brother dressed in whiteface…say, a couple of white girls?
12:05 am on November 7th, 2009
wow. if you dont know the historical connotations of blackface then im not surprised by your redneck opinions.
you could put fake buck teeth and yellow skin on too. doesnt make you hiter, but it probably makes you an idiot….like the wayans brothers.
i mean not all slights are created equal. everyone knows this, even latent racists who pretend not to.
not that its major at all, its just that once again at first glance at least it reinforces a “we dont know/care to know real black people” atmosphere, true or not. like college douchebag “ghetto” parties..
2:44 am on November 8th, 2009
Waiting for tracy to show us the history of the civil rights fights that the purple dinosaurs went through in America. Good luck in your 9th grade history class, tracy.
2:54 am on January 5th, 2010
I live in Chicago, I am Black and don’t see the big deal. Its more like a parody since the Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls play in the same building(The United Center) and for many years the Chicago Bulls have been the top draw and only important team in that building. I see it more as a light-hearted show of respect to what the Bulls has done as an organization. In contrast the Blackhawks, who Kane and Burish play for were once a proud organization have suffered over a decade of futility, and now they are the most popular team in Chicago.
Kane in particular has helped out under-privileged youth in Chicago, and is encouraging minorities to get into the game. Can’t jump to conclusions based off of one picture. Maybe if there was a video with them saying the N-word to each other or something you’d have a case.