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Believing Jordan Subban's experience more important than defending Jacob Panetta

As much as the incidents of racist behaviour in the NHL's feeder leagues have been disgraceful to witness, the defensive reaction from some hockey fans, journalists and players is an even more damning inditement of the lack of understanding that's needed to address these deep issues. Julian and the Zone Time crew gather to discuss.

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Video Transcript

- The fact that we're getting to a point where we're talking about interpretations and stuff like, let's like-- do you think this is the first time Jordan Subban has seen something like that?

- No.

- Do you think he just randomly, randomly said, hey, you know what? This person is doing this random pose, I'm just going to snap for no reason. No. You think Akiem Ali who's never seen something like this?

Do you think Nazem Kadri has never gotten a text like you did? Do you think that was interpreted in a different way? These players grew up with this.

But when they were kids, they were told, hey, you have to just stay quiet, play your game, get noticed, because eventually, you'll move on. You'll move on from minor midget. You move on to double A, triple A, [INAUDIBLE], whatever.

You'll move on because the goal is to make the NHL. And historically, if you make a big stick about what's something that's going on that isn't related to Pucks in Deep and poor check in Yada Yada. You're considered a distraction and you're gone. There is a bounds of history behind this. I'm not just making things up.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Brad Marshall seems to be living OK though.

[LAUGHS]

Sorry, my bad.

- So it's like--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I mean, I didn't mean to cut you off. Go ahead.

- No. No. It's OK. So it's just like you grow up with years seeing these different things, hearing these words, seeing these different actions whether it's a monkey pose, whether it's peeling of a banana, whether it's puckering your lips to make your lips look bigger. That's probably one thing that a lot of people did know about.

That's another one. All of these things you grow up seeing it. And you think, hey, maybe when I'm an adult like what everyone told me when I was a kid, I wouldn't be seeing these things. And then when it happens, of course, you're going to snap, of course, you're going to get angry, because again, when you're a kid, you're told to hold back and not make yourself a distraction.

When you're an adult and you can actually do things about it, and doing the quote-unquote diplomatic thing like maybe making a formal complaint or talking to your team or talking to the officials, that doesn't do things all the time. So it's just like, I really think people need to see things in Jordan's two bands perspective. And let's stop with the whole, oh, well, Jacob Panetta didn't mean to do this.

He meant to do what Tom Wilson did. Like, where are the line up of people talking, trying to talk to Jordan Subban? Where is that? Where were people trying to talk to him and see, hey, what did you see?

What did you experience? What was going through your mind? No. Let's only talk about Jacob Panetta because his livelihood has been ruined.

Like, what? Come on. Come on now. Like we're at a point now where the mantra is hockey is for everyone, and we need to make the game better.

Every time this happens and someone says, there's no place for this in the game. Yes, there is. And there always has been, and there always will be until there's zero tolerance for it.

So Ken, let's just stop beating around the bush about it, and let's stop with all these defensive pieces. And let's just start actually trying to understand. And it's OK to say that you don't get it.

It's OK. It's OK to say, hey, I've never experienced this before, I've never seen this before, I've never seen this gesture used towards me and anything else other than a tough guy pose. That's fine.

But don't look at the racialized person and say, no, you're completely wrong. But you're going to tell Jordan Subban he's wrong? You're going to tell him that all the things he's seen as a kid has been made up, fabricated.

Like, this just take a step back. That's what I'm telling anyone. Just take a step back and just think of someone else's situation, and not just because you have friends who are poor people of color.

Actually, try to think about what you would do in their shoes if you grew up being reminded over and over again that you're different, that you don't then you stand out, and then you have to work twice as hard as everyone else just because you look different. So that's all I'm asking. Just take a second and think of someone's situation before tweeting something, sharing something, or trying to discredit someone's experience, just because it's not your experience.