Blayne Haggart, an associate professor of Political Science at Brock, wrote a piece recently published in The Conversation comparing the actions of Australian sprinter Peter Norman nearly 50 years ago and champion hockey player Sidney Crosby more recently in the face of racial injustice.

Haggart writes:

A champion athlete, who is both white and not American, has the chance, at some personal cost, to protest racial injustice in the United States. Should he avoid taking a stand or lend support to a protest that doesn’t directly affect him?

The question is currently being asked of Sidney Crosby. His statement that it is “a great honour” for his Stanley Cup winning team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, to visit Donald Trump’s White House comes amid a boycott of the White House by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, and Trump’s racist criticisms of NFL players’ taking a knee to protest police brutality against black Americans.

Almost 50 years ago, the question was asked of another white non-American: Australian sprinter Peter Norman. The two athletes’ starkly different responses to similar situations of racial tension highlight the extent to which Crosby, the Penguins and the NHL — in the face of profound injustice — have failed to rise to the occasion.

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