In recent months, the NHL has begun to at least attempt to address the racial issues deeply embedded within the sport’s culture and the larger societal and systemic issues of racial inequality and police violence toward black people.
The return to hockey has featured a number of statements and symbolic gestures – the strength and understanding of which have varied, of course – from teams and the league as a whole. The Caps, for their part, put out the following statement prior to last Wednesday’s exhibition game:
The key to this statement seemed to be that the statement itself, and just the act of the team standing together with the Hurricanes during the anthems, was not enough – and that there was more to come.
Today the team announced a comprehensive set of initiatives to tackle diversity in hockey and racial inequality from three angles: youth hockey, education, and awareness.
Read on for the team’s full release and a breakdown of each of these new and ongoing initatives: