TheAlchemist wrote: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-1.5614395TSN even sent out an apology tweet, yet the above mentioned "ratio", still seems like an issue here today.
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?