Racialization

• While the incident that resulted in the meme may not have been racially motivated, it is still about race and white supremacy.
• The meme challenges viewers to consider the role of white women’s fandom in upholding and normalizing white supremacy in hockey culture.

Defining white supremacy

• Scholars have defined white supremacy as the “institutionalization of Whiteness and White privilege.” Institutionalization occurs when rules, standards or practices are nomalized to the extent that it has become so common we do not question it.
• White privilege describes the unearned advantages white people receive based on the colour of their skin.
• White supremacy is invisibilized and normalized in hockey culture.

White supremacy culture

• As white settler Canadian women, we recognize that “the burdens of dismantling white supremacy and decolonizing the sport of hockey are more justly shouldered by white settler Canadians and the hockey establishment.” Men’s ice hockey upholds white supremacy through erasure, exclusion and mandated conformity.
• The erasure of the history of the Colored Hockey League, as highlighted by sport researchers Alex Mackenzie and Janelle Joesph, is an example of how white supremacy erases those who aren’t considered white.
• A total of 83.6 per cent of the NHL’s workforce is white and over 90 per cent of players and nearly all coaches and officials are white.

Whiteness and surveillance

• Racialized hockey players are often held to a higher moral standard than their white counterparts.
• But the racism Subban endured as a Black athlete in a white sport has not received the same attention.
• White supremacy ensures we are constantly surveilling Black players and holding them to higher moral standards than white players.

Hockey fan culture

• Fans also play a key role in upholding white supremacy in hockey — particularly white women because ice hockey has a predominantly white fan base in North America.
• The exclusionary practices that keep men’s ice hockey elite, heterosexual and white are reflected in its fandom.
• Legal scholar Martine Dennie has written about what it means to be a hockey fan in Calgary.

Combating white supremacy

• Combating white supremacy involves exposing the way it operates as an undercurrent.
• True interrogations of white supremacy don’t focus on individual acts of overt racism — instead, they reveal how normalized and systemic it is.
• The Kane vs. Karen meme challenges white women to consider our role in perpetuating white supremacy.

• A pardon helps remove the stigma of a criminal record so people can access housing, employment, volunteer opportunities, and education, which are key to safe and successful reintegration as productive members of society.
• Our Government is taking action to improve access to pardons and address systemic inequities in the criminal justice system that have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples, Black Canadians, and other overrepresented or marginalized groups.
• We know that the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts racialized communities.
• As we stand together against all forms of discrimination, we need to dismantle systemic barriers so that our criminal justice system is more fair, effective, and keeps all Canadians safe."

• Christine Elliott:
  We are writing to urge you to declare racism, including anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, a public health crisis.
• Black, racialized, and indigenous workers also experience very significant amounts of racially motivated physical and verbal assault working in the Ontario health care system.
• In order to adequately address anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, we need a public health perspective.
• We need the province to declare racism a public health crisis.

• TORONTO, April 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equity-seeking communities must be central in the development of Ford government economic recovery plans.
• Ontario must commit to collaboration with labour to ensure the inclusion of equity-seeking groups, says the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL).
• This data must include information on how women, Indigenous, Black and other racialized people, individuals with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+ people, and immigrants and migrants are disproportionately affected by the global pandemic.
• The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario.