Since we’re all sharing stories about racism, hockey, and the stifling whiteness of Canadian institutions, here’s mine.

In November of 2000, I was six weeks into a yearlong internship at the Star, pinch-hitting for a sick colleague on the hockey beat. So I showed up at Lakeshore Arena to report a story about the Edmonton Oilers, who were playing the Leafs the next night, and whose roster included five Black players.

Late in the media session, a scrum formed around Scarborough’s Anson Carter. I asked him about the role race played in his professional life, and he gave calm, thoughtful answers. When I asked whether people tried to portray him as something he isn’t because he was a Black athlete in a largely white sport, he responded that people tried but said, “I’m not a politician. I’m hockey player.”

The following morning, that same exchange appeared in a competing publication under the byline and logo of a white columnist also present at the Carter scrum.

He wrote:

“Pressed by a minority reporter to comment on racism in the NHL, Carter said simply, ‘I’m not a politician. I’m a hockey player.”

One sentence, loaded with easy-to-decipher code, broadcast to a national audience, about who the columnist thought belonged in that sport and this industry. As one of a growing number of Black NHLers, Carter was a curiosity, but acceptable because, in the columnist’s portrayal, he didn’t acknowledge race.

And me? I was just a “minority reporter.” An interloper. An unwelcome guest in a section of the journalism industry reserved for experienced white men.