Two different incidents this past week have put the CFL playoffs on the backburner, and both of those incidents had a hint of racism attached to them.
Last Monday, police arrested Montreal Alouettes rookies Alain Kashama and Mark Estelle for having windows tinted too dark and not signaling a left turn.
The first thing that came to my mind is that if not signaling a turn is a ticketable offence, then where are the cops when I’m in a car, because I see people turning right from the left lane with their left indicator on. this is Montreal, after all.
The second thing that came to my mind is that if the cops had pulled the car with tinted windows over, only to see two white men what would the reaction have been? Yes, I know that the charges were dropped on the two players, but the fact of the matter is, police officers are human, and as much as they are trained to be objective, much like us in the journalism profession, personal biases play a role. For police officers, not just in Montreal, but around the world, it may be asking a bit too much to have them walk the fine line between looking for what kind of person committed the crime to what that person looks like.
Jack Todd raised a good point in one of his columns this weekend. He said that this was a good thing to happen and for the media to focus on because it allowed two black people with a high enough profile to cause Montreal police to investigate itself and its procedures.
I couldn’t agree more. Racism is still a problem in this country, and the fact that two black men were driving a SUV with an American plate with tinted windows in a neighbourhood that is not exactly Hampstead or Westmount automatically making police suspicious proves once again that maybe, just maybe people in power should take off their rose-tinted glasses and put on a pair of glasses that are tinted exactly the right amount. Enough to block out the race of a person when judging whether they are doing something wrong.
If the reason there is a limit on how dark a window can be tinted because they want drivers to look eachother in the eye, which according to police it is, then why don’t we limit how dark sunglasses can be?
The other incident dealing with racism in the CFL is an on-field issue. After his team came out flat and decided to play only one quarter in Sunday’s 33-24 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts receiver Arland Bruce III decided to vent to The Globe and Mail‘s Dave Naylor.
“I don’t think the referees like Pinball,” he said referring to Argos head coach Michael “Pinball” Clemons, who is black. “I think they are racists. How come there are no black referees in the CFL? They’re racists.”
I think Bruce has a point. I mean, the referees definitely cost the Argonauts the game.
Puh-leeze.
And, the referee did block Bruce from chasing down the previously mentioned Estelle after an interception.
Oh, wait, no he didn’t. Bruce went to the bench by himself after deciding he didn’t want to chase Estelle who ended up blowing the game wide open with a 78-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Bruce even had the balls? Sense? Frustration? To say, without any evidence other than his team losing, that the Alouettes paid the referees. Otherwise known as a bribe. Interesting theory, Mr. Bruce. Did the Alouettes also pay your teammates to come out and play a horrible game in the most important game of the season?
Something tells me that would be a no.
Bruce comes off as a sore loser after these comments, as someone who wishes he had tried harder, or at least paid the referees more than the Alouettes did.
I understand that referees make mistakes, they are just as human as police officers after all. But, to call them racist? That takes it a bit too far.
I do, however, believe he does raise a good point when he talks about there being no black officials in the CFL. There has never been a black official in the CFL. But until a fully qualified black person applies, and is denied by the CFL, this is an issue with nothing to back it up.
I think what this comes to is that Bruce needs lessons in class on how to deal with a loss from coach Pinball, who many people believe is the classiest person in the CFL. I don’t know Pinball other than what I see and hear in the media, but it seems to me that he’s a guy that would be likeable regardless of skin colour.
There are so many problems in this world, that we don’t need false accusations of racism. It is still a big issue in professional sports whether people like it or not, and is hard enough to deal with without these unsubstantiated remarks.
