Quinton Byfield was just an 18 year old from Newmarket Ontario before his big push towards an NHL dream that every Canadian playing ice hockey dreams of Byfield makes history. After the 2020 NHL draft, Byfield was picked second overall in the first round to the Los Angeles Kings. This made him become the highest drafted person of colour in the NHL since Evander Kane and Seth Jones. The NHL for years has often been majority white players and all the top draft prospects have been as well. Byfield is breaking barriers and typical norms within professional hockey and wants to become an advocate and role model for other young players to strive for the same things. In an interview with the NHL, Byfield is all right being a role model: “It means a lot to me, it’s something special, being in the record books for anything is definitely super special, especially [since] my dad and my mom didn’t play hockey or have too much knowledge about that, so kind of just growing the game together. It just shows there’s a lot of opportunity for everyone in the world that you can play every sport and be successful in it”.
This news supports the sociological theory known as the critical theory. The critical race theory defined by Kevin Hylton is “a framework for exploring racism in society, taking into account the role of institutions and drawing on the experiences of those affected. Applied to the world of sport, this framework can reveal the underlying social mores and institutionalised prejudices that have helped perpetuate those racial stereotypes particular to sport, and those that permeate broader society” Kevin Hylton. This relates to Quinton’s case as he is the highest drafted black player drafted in the NHL. This backs up the Critical Race Theory since the LA Kings were able to pick him based on skill and not because of race.
Paige P
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 