Why Are Canadian Sports Broadcasters and Media Personalities Predominately White?

[TheAlchemist]

I was going to write this topic with the "OT" Subject, but no, this is not OFF-Topic by any means.

This has been on my mind for over a minute and I don't think there's a lot of light shed on this at all.

Toronto has grown into a very diverse multicultural city, with people from every part of the world. We have many first, second and third generation immigrants living here, from all over the world. It is common to see people from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and a huge diverse range of mixed racial people.

I'd assume that since the population of Toronto has been so damn diverse, that we'd let the younger demographic fill in as sports broadcasters and analysts. At the very least, have more of a representation.

Yet, every time I watch our sports media there's a huge number of Caucasians. TSN is used in this post, but this applies to Sportnet and Radio personalities as well.

Basketball Broadcasters might have a little more color, but beside maybe what, Paul Jones and Sherman Hamilton (and the random peppering in of Sam Mitchell), I honestly don't see more minorities covering basketball. Especially for a league that's predominately black. Even among the younger and minor analysts, we got guys like Josh Lewenberg (who seems completely out of touch with young Toronto) covering the media. Yet colored person in sight.

And Jesus Christ, don't get me started on Hockey personalities. I'm gonna throw up.

The Black Lives Matter movement gave me a chance to really look into what's going on within Canada, and I'm surprised nobody has brought up what happened to Hal Johnson and TSN in the 90's.

Television personality Hal Johnson, who co-hosted the Canadian health and fitness segment Body Break, says the long-running series was started to combat racism.

In a four-minute YouTube video posted Monday, Johnson explains the origins of the series, which he has hosted with wife Joanne McLeod for more than 30 years.

He begins the video by revealing how, in June 1988, he was hired by TSN to be a sports reporter. On the same day Johnson found out he'd landed the position, he received another call from the same person saying that he wouldn't get the job after all.

The reason? Johnson was told TSN executives said the network already had one Black reporter and didn't want to have two.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/hal-johnson-racism-body-break-1.5614395


TSN even sent out an apology tweet, yet the above mentioned "ratio", still seems like an issue here today.

Read on Twitter

The below is a list of analysts hired by TSN, and it's disgustingly disporportionate.

Jack Armstrong – Basketball analyst
Craig Button – TSN Hockey Director of Scouting
Darren Dreger – TSN Hockey insider / studio analyst
Matt Dunigan – CFL on TSN studio analyst / colour analyst
Ray Ferraro – TSN Hockey colour analyst
Duane Forde – CFL on TSN colour analyst
Tim Hauraney – Formula 1 analyst
Mike Johnson – TSN Hockey studio analyst / colour analyst
Russ Howard – Curling on TSN colour analyst
Pierre LeBrun – TSN Hockey insider
Bob McKenzie – TSN Hockey insider / studio analyst
Jamie McLennan – TSN Hockey studio analyst / colour analyst, OverDrive host
Pierre McGuire - TSN Hockey TradeCentre analyst (mostly appears on NBCSN)
Jeff O'Neill – TSN Hockey studio analyst, OverDrive host
Jesse Palmer – NFL on TSN analyst
Jabari Greer – NFL on TSN analyst
Steve Phillips – baseball insider
Dave Poulin – TSN Hockey studio analyst
Leo Rautins – Basketball analyst
Brian Spanton – TSN Rugby analyst
Milt Stegal – CFL on TSN studio analyst
Glen Suitor – CFL on TSN colour analyst
Bob Weeks – Golf analyst
Tracy Wilson – Figure Skating colour analyst
Scott Ferguson – Baseball analyst
Scott Mitchell – Baseball analyst
Davis Sanchez – CFL on TSN contributor
Henry Burris – CFL on TSN analyst
Bryan Hayes – Hockey analyst, OverDrive host
Steven Caldwell – Soccer analyst
Kristian Jack – Soccer host/analyst
Luke Wileman – Soccer analyst
Terry Dunfield – Soccer analyst
Kevin Sawyer – Hockey analyst
Dave Naylor – CFL insider

That's 4 analysts out of 35 that are racially diverse, with 3 of them reporting on the CFL, and one for the NFL.

It trickles down to even sports columnists and blog writers. I just find it so damn interesting that guys with perhaps the most inferior writing products out there, a la Doug and Michael Grange, are happily employed and have job security, while the minority statistics are this damn bad.

Thoughts?

[Coach Smiley]

Good ol boys club, seems women/people of colour are relegated to sideline reporting or halftime analysis, but I can see it changing slowly. I have so much more faith in the youth of tomorrow than the adults of today.

Also, used to love the Body Break jingle! Didn't know that backstory.

[Roco14]

Well for starters, maybe because white people are the majority in Canada to begin with? Or maybe its because major Canadian sports like curling, skating, and hockey are predominantly played by white people, so it would only make sense that networks receive applications from people who have prior experience/interest in those sports (white people)?

Just a guess. Never met a black person that's into curling yet even though I'm sure they exist. Also TSN can't just fire guys like Doug and Grange. As bad as they are, have seniority and workers rights.

[Eternia]

This happened on Sportscentre before.

Tuesday's late-night TSN Sportscentre was hosted by Gurdeep Ahluwalia and Nabil Karim. There was a backlash on Twitter in 2012 when Ahluwalia and Karim, who are both brown men, debuted with the network. Tuesday was just as bad for comments that, rather than put a damning label on people, should just be called dumb.

[YogurtProducer]

More likely due to the fact the current crew of guys have been there literally forever. How much change has happened on the Raptors broadcast or hockey panels? If you simply extend your research to Sportscenter hosts you’d see there is quite a few diverse members of that crew.

Other thing is what the guy before said, a lot of the top Canadian sports are played by like 99% white guys (hockey, curling, etc.). The one sport (CFL) that actually existed for a while has a lot of POC analysts. The NBA doesn’t have the same long term status in Canada yet. Sportsnet also has those two black analysts (Jones and Sherm), as well as Scott Mitchell and Alvin Williams who show up from time to time. If I remember correctly a couple sideline guys are POC (Kayla Grey? And I think there’s an Indian man as well).

That being said, there is the Punjabi hockey night in Canada which is pretty cool.

[TheAlchemist]

More likely due to the fact the current crew of guys have been there literally forever. How much change has happened on the Raptors broadcast or hockey panels? If you simply extend your research to Sportscenter hosts you’d see there is quite a few diverse members of that crew.

Other thing is what the guy before said, a lot of the top Canadian sports are played by like 99% white guys (hockey, curling, etc.). The one sport (CFL) that actually existed for a while has a lot of POC analysts. The NBA doesn’t have the same long term status in Canada yet. Sportsnet also has those two black analysts (Jones and Sherm), as well as Scott Mitchell and Alvin Williams who show up from time to time. If I remember correctly a couple sideline guys are POC (Kayla Grey? And I think there’s an Indian man as well).

That being said, there is the Punjabi hockey night in Canada which is pretty cool.

I think the poster above referenced not the fact that it was Punjabi Hockey night in Canada, but the backlash at what happened.

I agree though I did overlook the fact that at times the crew brings in Alvin Williams. I just honestly don't think it's enough, especially with other sports.

Maybe it is a carry over from the hockey guys, which at that point, it's opening a can of worms. Because if anything screams racism, it's Canadian Hockey culture.

[C_Money]

Bit of a ridiculous thread tbh

[The Duke]

Basically any in demand professional job would be majority white. This is Brand new information!

[Osiris]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/cbc-sports-to-broadcast-raptors-in-punjabi-1.832853

Also Adnan Virk, Hazel Mae, Tas Melas, etc. say what's up, you lazy, lazy internet sod.

Also also, I'd say roughly 70% of the list you provided are former players, as tends to be the case with these sports network hires, for better or for worse. Ain't nobody griefing that TNT is over-representing blacks with Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq in contrast to Ernie. For Canadian TV, we've got Smitch and Alvin checking in here - but really, on a series of Canadian networks where hockey is king, you're going to see a reflection of the sports they cover the most, which means a pile of retired white boys doing lazy analysis. They actually do a decent job of hiring former CFL players of colour, it would seem.

You may also be too young to remember that basketball was a fledgling concept in Canada not too long ago, both to Canadians and to the NBA players that wanted so little to do with the country that collecting a paycheque long term here was too much to ask.

So what do we do? We lean on old standbys like Leo and Jay Triano and how they're committed to Canada basketball and we get FAR too excited when The Swirsk became a citizen, so frail was our ego about those wanting to profess their love for the sport, Canada, and the sport in Canada.

Hell, I'm almost proud of how far we've come in legitimacy and popularity in such a short period of time that some asshat such as yourself can completely ignore the history and the context and get all preachy like this **** should change overnight.

Edit: You've been on RealGM since 2010, so you're no kid, which adds to my laziness argument.
Do better.

[Metallikid]

No. Canada has like 15% Asian people, 3.5% Black people and 5% Native people. There's no reason to make it so that minorities are so vastly overrepresented in the media in a society that has 22% visible minorities - it should reflect those numbers with variations. If anything the one group that could use a greater TV presence is Natives. (Asian people are generally fewer in sports related professions but are much more dominant in professional positions)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada#Visible_minority_population

Outside of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver we're about as White as it gets. And on top of that like other people have mentioned many of these sports personalities have been in the business 20+ years and worked their way up with seniority.

[t54zhao]

It takes time for the diversity to percolate up. Canada was 95% white up until the 90s. You can't expect positions of leadership to automatically reflect the demographics because the breakdown of the leadership is a reflection (though not perfect) of the diversity of the workforce about 20-30 years ago.

[Tor_Raps]

I dunno man... not everything has to be racist. You have to consider that most minorities that make up the numbers are from a foreign country with no qualifications for the job.

Now obviously things are changing as the next generation is getting educated here. If the numbers are the same 20-30 years from now, we will have a problem.

[Coco Costanza]

It takes time for the diversity to percolate up. Canada was 95% white up until the 90s.

That's not really true. Even in the early 80's, my neighborhood and schools I attended were fairly diverse.

[Metallikid]

It takes time for the diversity to percolate up. Canada was 95% white up until the 90s.

That's not really true. Even in the early 80's, my neighborhood and schools I attended were fairly diverse.

Which was where? Somewhere in or near Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver? If not that is a significant exception.

[Coco Costanza]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/cbc-sports-to-broadcast-raptors-in-punjabi-1.832853

Also Adnan Virk, Hazel Mae, Tas Melas, etc. say what's up, you lazy, lazy internet sod.

Also also, I'd say roughly 70% of the list you provided are former players, as tends to be the case with these sports network hires, for better or for worse. Ain't nobody griefing that TNT is over-representing blacks with Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq in contrast to Ernie. For Canadian TV, we've got Smitch and Alvin checking in here - but really, on a series of Canadian networks where hockey is king, you're going to see a reflection of the sports they cover the most, which means a pile of retired white boys doing lazy analysis. They actually do a decent job of hiring former CFL players of colour, it would seem.

You may also be too young to remember that basketball was a fledgling concept in Canada not too long ago, both to Canadians and to the NBA players that wanted so little to do with the country that collecting a paycheque long term here was too much to ask.

So what do we do? We lean on old standbys like Leo and Jay Triano and how they're committed to Canada basketball and we get FAR too excited when The Swirsk became a citizen, so frail was our ego about those wanting to profess their love for the sport, Canada, and the sport in Canada.

Hell, I'm almost proud of how far we've come in legitimacy and popularity in such a short period of time that some asshat such as yourself can completely ignore the history and the context and get all preachy like this **** should change overnight.

Edit: You've been on RealGM since 2010, so you're no kid, which adds to my laziness argument.
Do better.

Why is it that there are always knee jerks like you hanging around who get personally offended at the mere suggestion there might be racism in Canada?

The OP made a perfectly calm and reasonable post, and in turn you called him a "lazy, lazy internet sod", an asshat, then topped it off with that condescending standby "do better".

The fact you replied in such an abrasive manner suggests they may have touched a nerve.

[gaoj2]

Most people don’t really care about black or white in Canada, only black are so concern now. I mean we fired Casey and replace him with Nike nurses not necessarily mean we are racists. Sometimes is about achievements. For sport media, it’s all about tv rating and get more commercial and money.

[Reeko]

The Raptors started off with John Saunders on the broadcast team. A lot of the excellent Canadian media talent gets picked up by the US media ie Saunders, Virk, and the immortal Peter Jennings.

[Westside Gunn]

The turnover for these jobs is very very low. If it was white from the beginning it will stay white until they retire or change jobs. It can be said for any corporate job as well, if the ones in place aren't willing to leave, how will you get fresh blood in? If I was in it, Im not leaving until I die or get metooed.

Its not a job for everyone. You need to be comfortable. You need to be charismatic. Preferably an athelte of the sport so you know wtf you're talking about. I remember they gave MoPete a shot, but he just couldn't do it. It was REALLY forced. Chris Bosh on the other hand was a natural, and he was always a charismatic dude to begin with. I believe Yahoo basketball has two chinese guys run the basketball vlog/show.

It's better if they find the right people rather than forcing diversity just for the sake of diversity. The dudes that replace Tim and Sid when they are away are diverse but are terrible AF.


Just because its bad in the states doesn't mean its as bad here. People need to stop reaching. I remember many colored tv personalities even in the 90s. Ian Mendes, Joshi, Saunders, Cabbie, Carter, PJ, Lalji, that really fat persian dude forgot his name

[Jcity08]

As long as their is no barrier to entry for these jobs that involves ethnicity/race/gender ect... than personally I dont see an issue.

Theres a lot of old guard like Leo and Jack have been there for a while, the turnover is really low for obvious reasons, so it'll be a while before you see new faces but it will happen eventually.

[Johnny Bball]

The black population in Canada is 3%. I don’t think OP knows this, nor do most. Seemingly only picked a small part with TSN and left out forgot Alvin, Sherman etc. But it does gets a mention... just not included in the math.

And of course hockey is dominated by white personalities (but still has some diversity on the broadcast side) since that’s what makes it up for the very large part In its participation. I see little issue there.

If you wanted representation by race, it’s the southeast Asia and asian communities that are underrepresented. But I think certain parts of that have to do with participation. And maybe somewhat interest at a different percentage.

I just don’t see it.

By the way... every large corporation over a certain size (100?) has to go through audits and their staff (chosen at random) get asked questions about diversity etc. by HR Development canada (sorry I don’t know the new name of this And think this was the ministry). I’ve sat on the staff end and been able to say what I think could be done to improve situation and been given a voice way more than once (they make the comments anaoymous). The way we go about this in Canada in the workplace is progressive if you ask me. Then again, you always find things different as you move further from the centre of the universe in both the population and attitudes,

Edit; By the way... don't take this to mean that I think things can't further improve.