Over the past few days, we’ve seen big time quarterbacks like Carson Wentz, Joe Burrow, Andy Dalton, Derek Carr, and Trevor Lawrence take to social media and speak out in the aftermath of incidents like the death of George Floyd.
San Jose Sharks star Evander Kane is calling on more white athletes to use their platform and denounce injustice.
“We need so many more athletes that don’t look like me speaking out about this, having the same amount of outrage that I have inside, and using that to voice their opinion, to voice their frustration, because that’s the only way it’s going to change,” the San Jose Sharks forward said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Friday.
“We’ve been outraged for hundreds of years and nothing’s changed,” Kane continued. “It’s time for guys like Tom Brady, and Sidney Crosby, and those type(s) of figures to speak up about what is right and, clearly in this case, what is unbelievably wrong. Because that’s the only way we’re going to actually create that unified anger to create that necessary change, especially when you talk about systematic racism.”
“In hockey, it’s a majority white league by far. It’s not even close,” he said. “So, we need to continue to come together. And we talk about it all the time, we talk about how sports is for everybody … (and about how) it’s an inclusive thing. But when we talk about our own personal battles outside of sports, there’s a lot of people that are silent on issues and they’re important issues. They’re issues that have been going on for hundreds of years, and we need that same type of team mentality to be brought to issues outside of our sport.”
He also said he wasn’t sure if there were enough hockey players making their voices heard on racial issues.
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“I don’t know. I haven’t seen too much,” he said. “What I do know is that, in terms of my teammates, they’re unbelievably supportive of me and what I stand for. I think hockey, unfortunately, has a different culture than some of the other sports in terms of speaking out, using your voice and speaking your mind.
“I’m one of the anomalies when it comes to NHL players in doing that. That’s another part of our problem, is guys being scared to really speak their mind and stand up for what’s right. This example is one of many, unfortunately, of what has continued for a number of years and ever since I’ve been alive.”
Kane posted on Twitter on Wednesday that he had signed a petition for the four police officers involved to be arrested.
“These officers need to be in jail,” he said. “The fact that you have CNN reporters getting arrested for doing their job in an extremely peaceful way and being cooperative with police, and yet you have four officers, one in particular, who murdered a man, and they’re out free. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s a complete joke, and that’s where the system that we live in . . . is in complete collapse.”
