Another extremely racist gesture in European hockey
Earlier this year Andrei Deniskin was suspended for making a gesture towards Jalen Smereck, the gesture in question was Deniskin peeling a banana and eating. The gesture implied Smereck the black player was a monkey, a commonly used racial insult for people of colour.
Today European hockey is in the news again for two players taking this insult even further. This time the incident occured in the Austria based ICE Hockey League when HK Olimpija Ljubljana's Tadej Čimžar imitated a monkey in front of former NHL defenceman and person of colour, Derek Joslin.
A teammate of Cimzar, Miha Zajc also made inappropriate gestures and both players have been suspended for 10 games and fined 3000 Euros, or approximately $3500 in US funds.
Joslin issued the following statement:
"I have never seen that before in my career. It's absolutely sad - especially because Ljubljana claimed after the game that it wasn't a racist gesture and so far there has been no apology for it. But there are several players on my team who have 100 percent confirmed to me that it was actually a racist gesture. I rely on the league to take this offensive behavior seriously, act accordingly, hold people accountable and punish those involved accordingly."
HK Olimpija Ljubljana issued the following reply to the accusations.
"Miha Zajc and Tadej Čimžar did not racistly insult VSV player Derek Joslin by imitating a monkey. "Gestures of our two players taken out of context."
This incident doesn't feel like something that can be taken out of context and deserves the harsh penalty it received.
Source: MZ
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