In January 2020, former African-Canadian professional hockey player Akim Aliu decided to open up in an interview with Ron MacLean about his hazing experiences in his junior and professional hockey career. Standing up for himself led to many events that ruined his career.
Following the interactionist theory, the interactions we have with others shape who we become, especially when it comes to sport and creating an identity evolved around that sport. The hockey culture is known to have a powerful identity formed by the strong bonds created on and off the ice. Sometimes people get too caught up in what this hockey identity really is and abuse their power. In the case of Akim Aliu, his veterans abused their power to assault the rookies and tried to mask it by making it seem as though it was normal and embedded in the hockey culture.
Now that Aliu is opening up 15 years later, many have apologized and reached out to him to make things right, but the damage has been done. Based on the identity hockey teams had at that time, not only did Aliu get punished physically for standing up to himself but was also viewed as a bad person and not given an equal chance at living out his dream of being an NHL star. Coaches and GMs were afraid that he would hurt the team’s culture and create issues revolving around race, proving that Aliu was treated differently because of his race. Whether Aliu was in this position because of race or because he was a rookie, the identity uniquely tied to hockey created by interactions within the sport led to Aliu standing up to hazing, then not being given a fair chance to live out his dream because of it.
Kyle
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 