Kim Davis, the National Hockey League’s diversity chief, says the league is not diverse enough.
Davis commissioned a report to prove that the NHL’s diversity needs improvement.
While increasing Black players will be an ongoing effort, Davis is satisfied with the NHL’s diversity of women in the workforce.
“I think one area that we are feeling positive about is that 38% of our workforce are women,” Davis said at a press conference. “We’ve done a lot of work to improve in that area. And it’s very consistent with our current female fanbase of forty percent, and so that’s a great benchmark.”
She continued: “Having said that, we know we have work to do with women of color and we’re leaning into that.”
Davis said she will check “every two years and measure our progress over time.”
Evander Kane is one of 2 Black players on the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers hockey team. There are 10 active Black hockey players in the league as of 2022.
Hockey fans are outraged that the NHL will soon look like the NBA or the NFL.
One conservative blogger wrote:
“I get that the vast majority of black people would rather be playing basketball and football because those sports offer more scholarships, more popularity, and are more lucrative at the pro level. Still, we should force them into hockey like a square peg into a round hole anyway, punishing others in the process, because that’s what diversity demands.”
Question: Would you watch hockey if there were more Black players on the ice?
The NHL's first internal demographic study found its workforce to be overwhelmingly white.
Kim Davis, NHL EVP of social impact, growth and legislative affairs, says seeing the numbers is a first step toward fixing the problem.
by @swhyno https://t.co/ufH2itfiip pic.twitter.com/OziGR3nrR4
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) October 18, 2022
