вЂњThat weвЂ™ve all been transformed because weвЂ™ve all seen the last nine minutes of this brotherвЂ™s life. Angela Davis said during a University of California Humanities Research Institute panel discussion on the movement in early June. вЂњThere was something about the witnessing of George FloydвЂ™s last breaths that has become a collective phenomenon,вЂќ civil rights icon Dr. And from those calls to dismantle mechanisms of oppression came a reckoning thatвЂ™s spread from industry to industry. One day prior, a 46-year-old Black man named George Floyd had been killed on those same streets, pleading for breath while pinned under the knee of a white police officer named Derek Chauvin.ДЇrom the consequences of ChauvinвЂ™s refusal to release Floyd, to let him stand, to let him breathe, came a demand for a different release - one from a system that similarly pushes down upon Black people the unending burden of, at best, unwarranted doubt and distrust, and at worst, violent physical harm.

On May 26, the streets of Minneapolis filled with smoke, with unrest, with voices - strained in grief-stricken desperation - escalating in their calls for justice. Progress will come with the gameвЂ™s Black voices at the fore - the question is simply whether the hockey world is finally ready to listen. Because her voice, and the voices of other Black women in the game - long silenced or drowned out, long sitting at the intersection of some of hockeyвЂ™s deepest biases - will be essential for any hope of this moment of possibility resulting in the sport moving forward in a meaningful way. While the process of correcting them has only just begun, Bolden has emerged as a leader in that effort, and the fact that she has is crucially important. The reasons for that silence are both varied and indefensibly simple, but as a movement demanding the abolishment of systemic racism has galvanized the masses, the hockey world has finally stopped to take stock of its failings. вЂњAnd I definitely think that everybody knows we were not having conversations.вЂќ вЂњI think what everyone is realizing is that race is a part of hockey, and if we are constantly saying that hockey is for everyone, we need to do a better job of being inclusive and having conversations. вЂњThatвЂ™s a really hard question,вЂќ she says, pausing for a moment. I ask her where she believes the womenвЂ™s game is at in terms of its effort to be an anti-racist space, and where it was before May 25.

Few would have a better sense of that recent progress than Bolden, the first Black woman to ever suit up in the NWHL, the first selected in the first round of the CWHL draft, and more recently the first to become an NHL scout after joining the Los Angeles Kings in January. Belated as it may be, itвЂ™s a welcome sight to see people finally taking action, she says. ThereвЂ™s an unwavering calm in her voice, even as she maps out the painful path Black hockey players navigate through the game, a reminder that what some view as a seismic cultural awakening is, for many, nothing new - that the ostensible exposure of systemic racism in so many facets of our lives is far less a puzzle finally pieced together and far more a case of eyes finally opening to an image thatвЂ™s been laid out on the streets for lifetimes.ДЄmid the low clatter of carts and baskets, Bolden reflects on the hockey worldвЂ™s similarly delayed realization how itвЂ™s just now openly recognizing an issue thatвЂ™s been raised to no avail time and time again by those who suffer the effects of systemic racism. But given the wave thatвЂ™s now enveloped her - the outpouring of support, the questions without simple answers, the quickening stream of requests for her voice in stories, panel discussions and podcast episodes - the only minutes left to spare for this conversation come during her Wednesday morning grocery run, the line between sharing her experiences and actually experiencing them beginning to blur. ItвЂ™s early June, and Bolden and I have carved out some time to discuss how the intensifying tumult of the past couple weeks has collided with her life as one of hockeyвЂ™s long-underappreciated trailblazers. When the phone line connects, I hear the faint rustle of footsteps before Blake BoldenвЂ™s voice.

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