In the same week that the Boston Bruins retired the number 22 worn by Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the National Hockey League, another ugly racist incident hit pro hockey. Jacob Panetta of the Jacksonville (FL) Icemen, in the East Coast Hockey League, was suspended and cut by his team for what was regarded as a racist taunt against Jordan Subban of the Carolina Stingrays. In the TSN report on the incident, starting around the 20-second mark, Panetta gives his side of the story, insisting the offending gesture was not racially rooted, although he sees in retrospect how it could be taken that way.
I’m certainly not taking sides, except maybe the “let him have his day in court” position. But something we should remember is that taunts based in race and an opponent’s sexuality have been going on for decades at all levels of sport. This is in spite of over 70 years (since Jackie Robinson broke into major league baseball) of awareness, affirmative action, sensitivity training, anti-hate legislation or performative proclamations about how this sort of thing is “not acceptable in our league”. (Besides, so long as Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves condone the execrable “tomahawk chop” and the National Basketball Association places lucrative dealings with China ahead of human rights there, all of those statements ring hollow.)
By the time the situation reaches that stage, it’s too late. Combating any form of hatred has to start in childhood, not by hammering it into a child that racism and bullying are wrong, but that loving your neighbour is right.
Jesus answered [the scribe], “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
“And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
— Mark 12:29-31
And let’s not forget …
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
— Proverbs 22:6
And most importantly …
The rich and the poor have this in common,
The LORD is the maker of them all.
— Proverbs 22:2
As Paul puts it,
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
— Philippians 4:8
Jesus’ entire “sermon on the mount” is to show us how evil actions are the result of evil in the heart. Turn the heart towards love — true, Godly love — and evil actions don’t stand a chance.
Two Minutes for Cross-Checking! 