Another Racist Incident Without Consequence Stains College Hockey

Michigan State senior Jagger Joshua posted a statement on Monday evening via his Twitter account that he had been the recipient of multiple racial slurs from a player in a November 11th game against Ohio State.

Joshua also stated that an official heard what was said and the player was given a game misconduct penalty. The Ohio State player was not named by Joshua, but here is the box score from that game.

Ohio State released the following statement on Monday evening:

Whatever “resolution” they claim was reached, it did not seem to involve a suspension for the player involved, as he played in both of Ohio State’s games last weekend, nor, most importantly, did their so-called resolution seem to involve the victim in the incident, as Joshua clearly seems far from satisfied with the response from Ohio State and the Big Ten.

The Big Ten also released a statement on Monday evening stating that they took no further action due to a lack of “indisputable evidence”.

The incident, and the complete lack of accountability and consequences to come from it, is sadly, not unfamiliar to the world of men’s college hockey. In 2019, Hockey East confirmed that a player from Boston College directed a racial slur at Providence forward Vimal Sukumaran, but chose to take no action because they could not determine the source of the slur.

It hopefully goes without saying that slurs directed at Joshua are completely unacceptable, and should have no place in hockey. But once again, the truly disappointing part of this the action, or lack thereof by those in positions of leadership. Their choices for who deserves protection and who doesn’t speak volumes louder than whatever empty buzzwords they can regurgitate into a press statement.