The National Hockey League remains the only North American professional sports league that has only a handful of participants from visible minorities. As Canada touts an image of diversity and multiculturalism, the national pastime has always betrayed this notion. A number of factors have contributed to this, including economic accessibility and the very culture of the sport that many have been happy to perpetuate.
Hubert Davis's documentary Black Ice explores the history of hockey in Black communities across Canada, including Africville, a razed community of African Nova Scotians in Halifax, NS, as well as the beginnings and ultimate end of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL). Davis presents a comprehensive and engaging education on this lesser-known area of hockey's history, interviewing former and current Black NHL players and the children of players who passed on.
Akim Aliu, Matt Dumba, Wayne Simmonds, Sarah Nurse and P.K. Subban, among others, recall their early days playing the sport and how they and their parents attempted to fit in with the other hockey families. Davis also speaks to these players about their knowledge of the CHL and players like Willie O'Ree, the first Black player to play in the NHL, and Herb Carnegie, a talented prospect of Jamaican descent who turned down the opportunity to play in the New York Rangers' minor league system as he was making more money in the Quebec league.
Carnegie is unfortunately best known for being on the receiving end of a now-notorious quote from Conn Smythe, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the time and still the namesake of the trophy awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Reportedly, Smythe said of Carnegie, "I'd give any man $10,000 who could turn Herb Carnegie white."
"I got that statement when I was 18. How would you feel?" Carnegie rhetorically asks, in an archival interview shown in Black Ice, in response to Smythe's comments. He continues through tears, "I can't forget it. Because he cut my knees off. He broke my legs. It's horrible. I don't want people to go through that."
Davis does a great job melding the past with the present to create a well-rounded and affecting film. Although it's been an issue for decades now, the current social climate in Canada and the US makes Black Ice especially timely, and will hopefully inspire further progress and diversity in a sport so many Canadians of all backgrounds love.
(Elevation Pictures)Hubert Davis's documentary Black Ice explores the history of hockey in Black communities across Canada, including Africville, a razed community of African Nova Scotians in Halifax, NS, as well as the beginnings and ultimate end of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL). Davis presents a comprehensive and engaging education on this lesser-known area of hockey's history, interviewing former and current Black NHL players and the children of players who passed on.
Akim Aliu, Matt Dumba, Wayne Simmonds, Sarah Nurse and P.K. Subban, among others, recall their early days playing the sport and how they and their parents attempted to fit in with the other hockey families. Davis also speaks to these players about their knowledge of the CHL and players like Willie O'Ree, the first Black player to play in the NHL, and Herb Carnegie, a talented prospect of Jamaican descent who turned down the opportunity to play in the New York Rangers' minor league system as he was making more money in the Quebec league.
Carnegie is unfortunately best known for being on the receiving end of a now-notorious quote from Conn Smythe, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the time and still the namesake of the trophy awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Reportedly, Smythe said of Carnegie, "I'd give any man $10,000 who could turn Herb Carnegie white."
"I got that statement when I was 18. How would you feel?" Carnegie rhetorically asks, in an archival interview shown in Black Ice, in response to Smythe's comments. He continues through tears, "I can't forget it. Because he cut my knees off. He broke my legs. It's horrible. I don't want people to go through that."
Davis does a great job melding the past with the present to create a well-rounded and affecting film. Although it's been an issue for decades now, the current social climate in Canada and the US makes Black Ice especially timely, and will hopefully inspire further progress and diversity in a sport so many Canadians of all backgrounds love.
