I don't think so, no. If this was a racist insult*, I'd prefer to teach my children that we live in a society where people are allowed to have their opinions, even if they are ignorant and offensive. Also, it's a good opportunity to teach your kids something like, "See that asshole? Don't ever be like that. Now ignore him, because ignoring him will remove any power he may have far quicker than the attention-whoring the media throws at him." *I am white and from just outside of London, as is this guy. If he's been raised in the same culture I was raised in, there's a good chance it didn't occur to him it was racist, either.
I guess a good check would be to look at arenas that sell bananas and have hockey games and find out, over the last five years, if bananas ever get thrown on the ice. If they do, and there are no black players present (presumably no one gives a shit if you throw a banana at a white guy), then you have your answer. I find it interesting that many of the posters who are SURE it was a racist action are a member of some sort of ethnic minority.
Is giving the dude as much air time as the crotch bomber helping solve anything about race issues? The wording of what they are charging him with seems weird too. Trespassing? What if he bought a ticket? Anyway, I am on the side that see it as kind of obvious the banana is a racial symbol when directed at a black man. If he obviously meant it as one then just ban his ass from the venue and be done with it, make a zero tolerance policy at the arena and enforce it. Making a federal (or what ever cooky set up you guys have up there) case out of it seems excessive and counter productive.
Last year Toronto had a problem with people repeatedly throwing waffles on the ice. It kind of became a protest symbolizing some people's displeasure with the organization's performance. My guess is that this guy was simply two sheets to the wind, and thought it'd be amusing or purposeful to chuck his leftover fruit. Nevertheless, I don't blame anyone who thought or still thinks it to be racially motivated. Sports, and hockey in particular, still have a significant amount of racism if not organizationally, then from fanbases at the very least. Part of it stems from the lack of integration in the sport. Out of 660 NHL players, at any given time only around 20 or 30 are black, and even fewer being Asian or Latino. Last year the Atlanta Thrashers had 1/5 of the league's black players, leading to a lot of stories whether it was intentional to help the team's struggling attendance problems. Meanwhile, the hockey fan base is by and large very, VERY white. Sometimes it can be rather overt, like when a fan posted on Facebook and Twitter calling Paul Bissonnette an Italian slang for "black person." Hockey lends itself to not being the most available sport for minorities. It's expensive and primarily a suburb sport. And please don't take that as anything more than white people have a statistically higher average income and make up the main portion of most suburban populations. The NHL has been making efforts to reduce the cost of youth leagues and trying to expand them in areas with larger minority populations however. Fun fact: The Boston Bruins integrated before the Red Sox and WAY before the Washington Redskins (the latter only integrating because the stadium in DC was federally owned and would not be allowed to play in it otherwise). Alt Focus: Need I also mention how the Redskins name is a derogatory word for Native Americans? Braves, Seminoles, Indians - I can see how those would be somewhat acceptable, but come on.
For what it's worth, he wasn't supporting "his team". London doesn't have an NHL team. It was an exhibition game being held there, presumably, to test the market for an NHL team in London. My guess is he was just trolling. As in, he was probably aware it was racially motivated and thought it would be funny. Canadians have an odd way of doing reprehensible things while drunk (see; pissing on the national war memorial), and even more reprehensible things during hockey games (see: the cities of Montreal and Vancouver).
And vice versa. I'm not sure it was intended as a racist action, but I am sure that you can't be sure it wasn't. It's one of those things that you just accept until someone points it out to you, and then you go, "How is that OK?" But there just aren't enough people to complain, I guess.
Since I live in one of the most racially divided cities in America, I feel free to offer my $0.02 on the subject. I am sick to death of everything having some sort of underlying meaning with race. That's the excuse for so much shit in this world. "Oh, the children aren't passing because the teachers are racist. Oh, we can't balance a budget because the council members are racist towards one another. Blah blah blah...." Sick of it. However, people have a certain worldview, a way they look at things. Give people booze, and by and large, you'll get out of them drunk what's inside of them sober. These things add up to one thing: This fits together too neatly for this guy not to at least have some racially tinged motivation behind his action. It is a shame, but too many people, of all races, wish for there to be racism. That is the excuse for any and all failure by a large segment of people. "Oh, my business failed, it's the white man's fault," "Oh, I didn't get that job, it's because they gave it to the black guy for affirmative action." "Oh, I can't find a job. All these Mexicans and Chinese are working for so damn cheap." And so on, and so forth. I think a big reason this is such a big story is that so many want to say, "I'm not racist. These things don't happen here. Racism only exists in the American South and South Africa." So many people want to say, "There's no racism here" that instead of saying, "Someone acted like a drunk dipshit. Find him so we can tell him you're banned.", it's become, "This is a hate crime. He needs to be brought up on hate crime charges. He needs prison. Blah blah blah." This is all so people can look down on someone else, and feel superior. Just say you've found the guy, and that he's been banned from NHL games. Instead, he's becoming a cause celebre, and will get more attention (both good and bad) than he deserves.
The act of throwing a banana at a black player is pretty obviously intended to be racist, to me at least. For the record, apparently there are currently 29 black players in the NHL.
Right, and just as interesting is many of the posters who are SURE it wasn't a racist action or a guy just wanting to throw shit on the ice have made it clear they're a member of the larger majority group. The thing is that I'm racially ambiguous enough that I can pass for white if I grow my hair out and wear it a certain way. If I keep my hair short I'm automatically assumed to be a mexican or of hispanic decent (especially if I wear a hat). So much so that when I've been out in DC and I've had other folks of hispanic decent engage me in spanish. I speak no spanish except for me gusta en cervasa and muerjeres. Folks have tried to engage me discussion of 'my spanish heritage'. That being said, I had worn my hair long since middle school until last year when I decided to grow it out because I was simply tired of looking for a cheap, decent barber in DC who had skills with a straight razor. The difference in how people treated me amazed me. It was all in the subtitles. It wasn't overt but people approached me with a different tone. It's hard not knowing if something happened the way it did because of your skin color or simply because that person is a douche. Particularly when it happens over and over. For the record, I'm half Vietnamese and half white with dark features.