Hockey’s racism is showing

An amateur league playoff game in western New York was canceled because of racism last weekend.

Hockey remains a predominantly white sport and black players suffer racist taunts on a regular basis as a black player did against an under-18 team from Amherst, N.Y.

Whenever Roshaun Brown-Hall touched the puck, the opposing team from Cheektowaga, N.Y., made monkey sounds in the Jan. 20 game. (View the video here)

A league “investigation” into the incident attempted to bury it until after the playoffs when the issue of any discipline would become moot, Deadspin reports.

That’s the father of the player went public and turned up heat on officials not to look the other way.

“What it looks like to me is that they were stalling, knowing that most of the players on the teams are seniors. So after this weekends playoffs, they’re not playing anymore, the season’s over,” the player’s father said. “Canceling the games is truly unfair to all the players, who played all season long and they want to play in the playoff games.”

This week, the president of the amateur hockey association, an affiliate of USA Hockey, in the state resigned, the Buffalo News reported. A coach and two players also have been suspended.

A Cheektowaga town councilman issued a statement condemning the racism, adding the “it’s not who we are” clause, ignoring the fact that when your town raises a group of racist players, when parents and fans don’t call attention to it during the game, and when officials stonewall an investigation, it’s pretty much who you are.

“No player should have to go through that,” said Philadelphia Flyers player Justin Bailey, an African-American who once played for the Amherst team.