Brown skin, white ice: South Asian specific ice hockey programming in Canada

ABSTRACT

Ice hockey is traditionally known as a ‘white man’s sport’; however, this is a fabricated history that has erased Black and Indigenous contributions to the game. With changing demographics in settler nations such as Canada, racialized citizens are starting to challenge who is allowed to participate and speak about traditionally white-dominated cultural practices. This study uses interview data, media analysis, and reflective vignettes to examine the work that Apna Hockey does to unsettle the whiteness of ice hockey culture in Canada by amplifying the voices and experiences of South Asian hockey participants. Apna Hockey challenges dominant stereotypes about South Asian athletes and bodies through its networking opportunities and social media platforms. We argue that, even though Apna Hockey cannot undo racism in hockey by itself, it does important work with respect to creating and taking space that has never previously been afforded to racialized participants.

KEYWORDS:

• Hockey
• Canada
• sport
• racism
• whiteness
• apna

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alysha Bains

Alysha Bains’ Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funded doctoral research investigates the emergence of South Asian creative networks in Canada. Through an ethnographic approach, she aims to highlight a unique perspective to illuminate the ways technology, generation, creative work and pressing social issues intersect in the current period to shape the present and future of the nation.

Courtney Szto

Courtney Szto is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Queen’s University, Canada. Her work focuses on intersectional justice in sport and physical activity. Her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funded doctoral research explored South Asian experiences in Canadian ice hockey and is published as a monograph, Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the voices of South Asian Canadians (Rutgers University Press, 2020). She is the Senior Editor of Hockey in Society and her current grant project is a SSHRC Insight Development Grant critiquing the waste created by sporting good production and consumption.