Black Girl Hockey Club Wants You to Get Uncomfortable | FEATURE

“Change is uncomfortable,” exclaimed Fatou Bah, one of the board members of Black Girl Hockey Club. “This should be uncomfortable. If this makes you uncomfortable, that should be a conversation starter.”

Bah spoke over Zoom alongside Anastasia Hardin. They’d just seen each other the day before at the PWHL Sirens’ game that, ironically enough, was centered around Black History Month.

Both women are board members of the Black Girl Hockey Club, Fatou since 2020 and Anastasia since 2022. Founded in 2018 by Renee Hess, the club’s roots have grown significantly since their first meeting. In the intervening years the club has visited several NHL teams, including the Devils in 2020, awarded scholarships to fund hockey equipment for young women of color with a few of those recipients going on to play for Division I teams and even represent the USA Development team.

The Devils will host the Black Girl Hockey Club at Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, which is the team’s annual Black History Celebration Night.

The Devils hosted the Black Girl Hockey Club for a 2020 meetup with the likes of former Devils PK Subban and Wayne Simmonds. The visit arrived before a time of turmoil, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world and a powerful wave of the Black Lives Matter movements took to the streets. It was in the atmosphere that the Black Girl Hockey Club’s Get Uncomfortable Campaign was born, a challenge to the world of hockey and beyond to face their biases head-on.

Since the campaign began, over 10 NHL teams have taken the Get Uncomfortable pledge, which is to:

Encourage the hockey community to make a welcoming space for Black girls and all BIPOC communities as players and fans of the sport

Employ and recruit BIPOC applicants to begin the process of diversifying hockey at all levels

Educate the hockey community on social justice and allyship with guidance from BIPOC leaders, anti-racism experts, advocates, players and fans.

“The first hockey game that I went to … I remember a combination of feeling uncomfortable,” Anastasia said, her voice rising with the memory. “I was there with Black and Brown students in the space, which was mostly predominantly white, but also just feeling like this overwhelming energy from the fans. And my students were really excited. We maybe didn't understand everything that was going on, but just the energy was infectious and folks (in our group) wanted to engage in the sport, because it's really exciting.”

She spoke not of fear, but of a deep, unshakable urge: “And I think I’ve always been someone who’s probably excited about things where I feel like it’s a space I’m not supposed to be that makes me want to be there more.”

While Simmonds and Subban met with the women back in 2020, the effort and support needs to come from not just Black hockey players. And that’s part of the goal for Black Girl Hockey Club.

“I don’t think Black Girl Hockey Club is investing an equal amount of time in chasing other folks down and saying, ‘Hey, you need to get uncomfortable,’” Anastasia said. “A lot of our energy gets poured into our own base. Either Black women, folks who are allies pouring into those communities and saying, the men and white women who are also on our board, ‘How can we make you all feel safe and make you feel comfortable?’”

And although the Devils will host a small gathering for the Black Girl Hockey Club on the Black History Celebration Night, Fatou insists that what they do matters beyond a single day of recognition. The Devils have been highly active in the Black community, and that’s one of the reason’s the Black Girl Hockey Club chose to partner with the team and attend the game.

“Are we your pet project for the month? If we are, I don’t think we want to partner with you,” she said firmly. “We’re Black every single day of the year, not just from February 1 to February 28. We have to be smart in the decisions of the people we partner with, because we take ourselves seriously, and we want to maintain the integrity of what our mission is.”

Fatou’s reflections are framed by moments of connection, like the ones they’ve experienced at games where strangers become friends.

“The white fans come like, ‘This is freaking awesome. You have a section to yourselves. What is this? An organization? What do you guys do?’” she recalled, her voice filled with the warmth of understanding. “It’s really cool because the majority of the people telling us this are not people who look like us. They’re often older white men, for example, who come up wearing a PK Subban jersey. That’s something we’re proud of – seeing that level of engagement from fans of all backgrounds.”

Fatou also points to how the visibility of Black Girl Hockey Club fosters a sense of belonging and connection.

“You’re with your group of melanated, beautiful friends, and then another melanated person comes over. They might say, ‘Hey, I’m talking to you because you look like me. Wait, what’s this about? How can I be a part of this?’” she said.

It’s this type of recognition that reinforces the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels welcome. And Anastasia knows that true change, the kind that lasts, comes only when we’re willing to confront that discomfort.

“Hopefully they are having those conversations,” she said, “and hopefully a lot of them are uncomfortable, so that they can come to good change.”

First and third photos courtesy of Akim Burke