Two visible minorities host SportsCentre...backlash follows
 

Thoughts?

In 2013, is it uncomfortable to see two non-white males do the sports highlights? I mean, TV stations, more and more, are hiring personalities that better reflect their audience.

We see many more women watching sports, and as a result, more woman are in sports broadcasting. You have lots of visible minorities watching sports, so you add some colour to your station.

That obviously shouldn't be the only job requirement. I watch TSN, Sportsnet, the Score all the time and for the most part, the on-air personalities, regardless of ethnicity are damn good at what they do. It makes no difference to me. Sure, Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole have wicked chemistry and I too like to see them more often than not.

Of course people are free to have their opinions, but posting ignorant comments with some having major racial overtones...the backlash will have backlash.

Gurdeep Ahluwalia and Nabil Karim hosted Sportscentre

Excerpt:

Honestly, I hate nabil karim because he's a terrible broadcaster. During the euros he was there "overseas connection" and did a cringe worthy terrible job. About as bad as craig forest
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you can thank American Media and the Harper govt. and Canadian Fox News stations like SunNews for slanting Canadian views against minorities, especially against arabs & muslims; so it shouldn't be much of a surprise even though it's so sad to see

Does Canada even have a desirable soccer broadcaster or commentator? Most of the guys that cover it are has been athletes from England...kind of like Forrest. :badpokerface:??

I never remember the names of commentators but wasn't a former Team Canada player doing all the soccer stuff?

I didn't really think much of it ... i just thought it was a joke sketch parody of Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole Arab edition....

didn't really care much after that

Go to a Canucks game and see how many brown people are in the stands. I know at least 4 or 5 that own season tickets to the Canucks. One owns 4 in the reds just off center ice. He also played a few games with the Canucks. It's good to see more minorities in sports. There is going to be a wave of Asians playing in the NHL in the next 10 years.

I don't mind as long as they do a great job. I dont mind nabil karim, but I love Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole.

although he's not a sports anchor, I'm a fan of Fareed Zakaria on CNN. good shows and segments.

^fareed is very smart and well spoken. Him and sanjai gupta commentating some basketball - now that was be bawse

best thing to happen to them. more attention and they definitely wont be fired for a while.... because that would just be racist.

Personally I was proud to see them hosting the show, breaking some barriers. As long as someone is the best for the job I don't think skin colour should ever come in to the equation.

I've seen Nabil a few times when he was doing interviews for the CBC and he wasn't great.

The problem is that there isn't a deep talent pool of ethnic minority sports broadcasters, so they have to put up mediocre talent. Who else works at TSN that isn't white? Jermaine Franklin and John Lu?
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God damn, I hate John Lu's voice. Every time I have to watch a clip with him commentating, I cringe.

Farhan Lalji on the other hand, I like.

Everyone at TSN is fine, John Lu, is mehhhh

I do not like Roger Millions on SNET though

I got no problem with any of the Sportcentre hosts. They're all better than everyone on Sportsnet and The Score with the exception of Don Taylor (aieehahahaheyayayyaahh BRUHAHA).

Honestly, I didn't even really think anything of the new guys being brown. I only pay attention when there's a new female anchor. :D

A couple of people sending some joking tweets isn't real racism, blown way out of proportion for the media to run a story. Whats new?

Personally know Nabil Karim...great guy! He has worked his butt off to get where he is.
Yah, I agree that the media has blown the story out of proportion but at the same time jokes do hurt.

Well, the jokes were distasteful. One guy referred to them as "Osama and Saddam".

If they were black, is it okay to call them Kunta Kinte? Rodney King?



I don't think what was said was particularly harmful but at the same time, they're making fun of two guys that speak rather perfect English and have a resume good enough to make it to SportsCentre...and yet people just dismissed them because they're brown.

Sounds more like some trolls trying to stir shit up, rather than actual racism.

Honestly, who gives a fuck what color/nationality/gender/shape/hair color/height/weight a sportscaster is? Whether or not the person has a clue what they're talking about is the only criteria that SHOULD matter. Well okay, some degree of sanity might be a good idea (*ahem*BobCole*coff*).

There are plenty of REALLY WHITE sportscasters who aren't clever enough to do traffic reports, but nobody seems to care, why... because they're white, so they get a pass? Please.

BTW, Farhan is THE DUDE.

I would absolutely love if a visable minority took over for Don Cherry (that is if he still does it..havent watched HCIC for a while).

But yea, for a country that prides itself on being so multicultural, its kind of a shame to see these jokes or comments.

They could be jokes, but, there is truth behind every joke. You have to have some type of an ignorant mindset to even *think* of the joke.

Jay and Dan podcast FTW

I really feel that media blows things out of proportion. They find tweets and act like there's a massive backlash, you're always going to get stupid comments on twitter.

Wow, did you even think about what you wrote before you wrote it?

Yes, Don Cherry is still going strong - just turned 79 this month. He's still as popular - and controversial - as ever. The CBC loves it because he drives ratings - even people who disagree with him and hate what he says, tune in to his segment, and that's ultimately what it's all about.

And what have we been talking about here, really? Sportscasters who KNOW THEIR SPORT. Well, Grapes KNOWS HOCKEY. So why would you replace him? And for that matter, why would you parachute in a visible minority *just for the sake of replacing Cherry*? That's more like tokenism, which is arguably worse than racism.

Must be American tweeters

Surprised at how well Kate and Natasha from TSN have done...

TSN for my sport highlights every night! :fullofwin: