saw one too many posts about cole/leno, so time for me to bitchpost into the void. i do not expect anyone to see this, i am writing this purely for myself and the two people who already had to listen to me talk about it. for a more concise version of what i'm about to say, please see this post.
i just really can't see a way around this one except for racism guys!
before i really get into it i'd like to clarify that I don't think the majority of people posting about coleno are consciously being racist on purpose. that's 100% NOT what i'm saying. but i DO think this points to a larger issue in general hockey fandom spaces and hrpf spaces.
a lot of people are coleno posting in a very specific way that implies they previously had no one on the caps to pair leno with, or at least no dynamic similar enough to their other duo (we all know who) for them to care about. i think a lot of this we can chalk up to people simply not knowing the caps roster. which is ok.
however, i'd like to point out that there has been another rookie on the caps this WHOLE SEASON, that leno has chemistry with already. justin sourdif does in fact exist, despite what some hrpf posters would have you believe. i can see almost no other reason than the larger racism problem in this fandom for why people seem to conveniently Not Know or Not Care about sourdy in relation to leno, but then get so excited about the potential coleno dynamic.
again, it's not everyone. i'm sure there are people out there who have been paying attention, but just simply don't see chemistry between leno and sourdy. but that cannot be everyone i see posting rn.
and i know some people are gonna use the reasoning of "well maybe people actually just didn't know about sourdy." but, well, you see, this is an issue in and of itself. why are people not aware of sourdy? they probably don't see as much fan content about him. but then the question is, why don't people see fan content about sourdy? why, out of the myriad of rookies this year, do i, A Certified Sometimes Caps Poster, not even really see sourdy content? and speaking of: why do i see a markedly less amount of fan content about any of the comparitively small number of non-white players in the league?
hockey fandom in general and hrpf spaces have a major problem with how the fandom treats non-white players. like that could be a whole essay length post by itself. but i think in situations like this, that tendency seems to roar its ugly head very obviously.
anyway, everyone get more justin sourdif NOW.
