(LifeSiteNews) — The National Hockey League (NHL) is deciding to focus on so-called “diversity and inclusion” after an internal report finds 83.6 percent of its employees are white.
On Tuesday, the NHL released a report entitled, Diversity and Inclusion: NHL Report on Strategies, Initiatives, and Progress. The report, which provides an overview of the NHL’s internal demographics, found that 83.6 percent of their workforce is made up of white people, leading a league executive to say the organization has “a ways to go,” with the commissioner vowing to use the data to shape future policies.
“The whole purpose behind doing a workforce study is to provide a baseline: a fact-based baseline so that you can begin to develop very intentional and specific strategies around where you need to hire, how you need to hire, how you need to improve your brand,” executive vice president of social impact, growth initiatives & legislative affairs, Kim Davis, told the Associated Press.
“This is a good start, but there’s a ways to go,” she added.
The study, conducted through a survey in which 67% of the NHL’s approximately 4200 employees took part, also discovered that nearly 62 percent of NHL employees are male.
“We’ve done a lot of work to improve in that area, and its very consistent with our current female fan base of 40% and so that’s a great benchmark,” said Davis. “Having said that, we know we have work to do with women of color and we are leaning into that.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also chimed in with his thoughts on the new data, vowing it will be used to shape future policies as a means of producing “the greatest impacts in the years to come.”
In a Tweet put out by AP Sports, the outlet characterized the NHL as being “overwhelmingly white,” but added that the league is working towards “fixing the problem.”
The NHL’s first internal demographic study found its workforce to be overwhelmingly white.
Kim Davis, NHL EVP of social impact, growth and legislative affairs, says seeing the numbers is a first step toward fixing the problem.
by @swhyno https://t.co/ufH2itfiip pic.twitter.com/OziGR3nrR4
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) October 18, 2022
Criticizing the implication that employing white people is a “problem” that needs to be “fixed,” an opinion piece in the Washington Examiner slammed the league’s comments as being “social justice-speak for saying that the league should stop hiring white people.”
“What about the NBA?” asked one Twitter user. “Is it too black then? Or can’t they say that?”
How about the NBA? Is that too black then? Or can’t they say that?
— Pat (@pat_America1st) October 19, 2022
Another user compared the diversity rate and salaries of NBA players as compared to NHL players, saying that 73% of the NBA is black, and that they make $5 million more dollars a year on average compared to NHL players.
The NHL is 83% white
Average NHL salary: $3.5 millionThe NBA is 73% black
Average NBA salary: $8.5 millionIf the roles were reversed, there would be 50k articles about “closing the race income gap in sports”
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 19, 2022
Commenting on this, an article by RedState mocked the new NHL initiative writing: “I get that the vast majority of black people would rather be playing basketball and football because those sports offer more scholarships, more popularity, and are more lucrative at the pro level. Still, we should force them into hockey like a square peg into a round hole anyway, punishing others in the process, because that’s what diversity demands.”