cannot stop thinking about the hughes brothers’ book club’s first book being “fast pitch” by nic stone, which is a coming-of-age story about a black female captain of an all-black softball team, written by a black female author and engaging directly with the difficulties of being a person of color in a mostly white sport…
like. this is exactly how toxic hockey culture gets deconstructed in the next generation of athletes. the hughes brothers say that not only is it cool to read as an athlete, it’s ALSO cool to engage with the perspectives of black women and listen to them when they tell us about their experiences.
i LOVE when hockey players use their money, privilege, and influence to do good, and this is genuinely a fantastic initiative. feeling very good about the players i choose to support today🥹❤️
The Vegas Golden Knights are looking to sign Carter Hart. Take my hand, let's bully the front office <3
Per Chris Johnston via the Athletic (archived)
In the same article, he says the Canes have reconsidered their own hiring of Michael McLeod due to backlash:
You can and should bully the shit out of any NHL team for this. There aren't a lot of active Knights fans on here but a few are taking action over on Twitter, and it would be sweet if hockey fans across the league spoke up and added their voices to our efforts.
If you are having trouble with what to say, below the cut is a helpful email scaffold that @stereax kindly drafted! Please add/take away details at your discretion.
[Email subject line: something along the lines of "Please do not sign Carter Hart".]
Hi! My name is [YOUR NAME], I am a [Golden Knights/hockey] fan [since XXX] and an advocate for sexual assault survivors. I am writing to you today to implore of the Vegas Golden Knights to not sign Carter Hart.
I find it deeply distressing that [my favorite/any] NHL team would consider signing any players that were involved in the recent Hockey Canada scandal. This is not just about the game of hockey, but a deeper and more pervasive issue of the culture of sexual assault within hockey. While none of the players were convicted of sexual assault (due to insufficient evidence), the evidence is clear that these men deeply traumatized EM, trauma that has taken her years to recover from. By signing Hart, or any other player involved in the scandal, Vegas sends a message to sexual assault survivors, and indeed many female fans of hockey, that their voices are not important, and that what they have gone through does not matter if the person that abused them is marginally better at a sport than someone else. This goes against Vegas's core value of community.
[If Vegas goes forward and signs Hart, I will: cancel my season tickets/not renew my season tickets/no longer buy tickets/cancel my KnightTime+ subscription/no longer be a fan of the team/whatever other consequence you can think of.]
Please reconsider signing Carter Hart. By not signing Hart, the Golden Knights can take a stand for sexual assault survivors, underline that there is no room for such heinous actions in the NHL, and reaffirm that hockey truly is for everyone.
edit the email scaffold as you like - add whatever you think is relevant (if you're an SA survivor or have any other thoughts absolutely drop those in if you feel comfortable), tweak the language, do whatever!
absolutely aim for the wallet. anything you can say that will make the vgk go "we will lose money if we sign this guy" is a good thing.
"but i don't like vegas and think they're stinky" okay. then don't let them set the precedent that the teams you like should be able to do this without suffering repercussions. please put aside your "gold team bad" biases and stop the gold team from getting worse, because today it will be them and tomorrow it will be your favorite team. there is no moral high ground in hockey.
as van and chris johnston have said: we know this works. carolina is already reconsidering. it wasn't a huge group of fans that were anti-mcleod either - but it was enough. let's make there be enough fans against hart.
strongly encouraging you to reblog this to signal boost!
snowghoul
dededos
dailybridgerton
discoholicmusic
turnnoffyourmind
