After Twitter (finally) laid the ban hammer on Donald Trump for inciting white nationalist terrorists to violence, Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo rage-quit the platform himself. And it was just as hilarious as you’d think it was.
This is the same Tony DeAngelo, Deadspin’s No. 19 Idiot of the Year, who defended Trump’s infamous claim that people could use disinfectant to kill coronavirus, and who regularly uses social media to spew run-of-the-mill MAGA garbage like denying COVID-19 altogether.
Here’s what we wrote about him last month:
This one aged well:
It’s the same Tony DeAngelo who was suspended by his juniors coach for using racist slurs. And whose father, in a defense of DeAngelo that was as solid as DeAngelo’s on-ice defense, said he uses those same slurs, “Every day. Every day.”
Despite what Tony’s dad thinks, racism isn’t just a regional South Jersey thing. It’s alive and well in all 50 states. In fact, Rangers prospect K’Andre Miller was subjected to racist abuse at the hands of Rangers fans on a Zoom call last year.
It’s time for the Rangers to come to grips with the fact that they have a COVID-denying racist on the team, with his own podcast to boot, who wants to associate with the social media site that’s under threat of removal from Google and Apple Stores for its role in fomenting violence by terrorists. At a minimum, K’Andre Miller deserves better.
According to Mollie Walker of the New York Post, it seems the Rangers’ response will be limited to “discussions.’
Last year, the NHL paid lip service to fighting white supremacy. [sarcasm font] Some teams even tweeted little black boxes. [/sf]
But the league’s serious problems with diversity haven’t gone away. If anything, in recent months it’s gotten worse. You have Seth Jones, one of the league’s few prominent Black players, liking tweets from white supremacists’ favorite Black person, Candace Owens. And Bobby Orr taking out full-page ads endorsing Trump.
And then you have the Vegas Golden Knights associating with Black Rifle Coffee, the coffee of choice of Kyle Rittenhouse and Capitol HIll insurgents, as pointed out by Samantha Chang of The Broadcast Pod.
The Rangers and the league condemned the horrific abuse aimed at Miller, but the league was pretty silent over the Akim Aliu story.
Hockey is sending a pretty clear message that they don’t care about you being racist if you can run the power play. And we don’t have to take any of its performative gestures and empty words seriously.
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