When he became the victim of a racially-charged incident that made international news, Bokondji Imama leaned on his 蜜柚直播 Roadrunners teammates.
鈥淔rom the moment the events happened 鈥 from that first second, people started supporting me, starting with my teammates,鈥 Imama said. 鈥淎nd it trickled all the way up to the organization and they came up to me with this great idea.鈥
Starting with Friday night鈥檚 game against the Ontario Reign at 蜜柚直播 Arena, the Roadrunners will be selling T-shirts that say 鈥淓nough is Enough.鈥 Proceeds from shirts, which are $25 鈥 $50 for fans who want one signed by the team 鈥 will go to the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which aims to 鈥渆radicate systematic racism and intolerance in hockey.鈥
The 鈥淓nough is Enough鈥 T-shirts cost $25 鈥 $50 for fans who want one signed by the team.
San Jose鈥檚 Krystof Hrabik made a racist gesture toward Imama during a second-period stoppage in the teams鈥 Jan. 12 game, a 4-3 蜜柚直播 win in San Jose. The American Hockey League suspended Hrabik for 30 games 鈥 the second-longest ban in the 83-year history of the league.
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Imama said the gravity of the situation hit him when his mom teared up about it. Imama鈥檚 parents hail from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Imama grew up in Montreal.
In the hours following AHL鈥檚 announcement, Imama tweeted that 鈥渆nough is enough鈥 鈥 the inspiration for the T-shirt. The back of the shirt reads 鈥淎ll for All for All.鈥 Roadrunners players and staff wore the shirts to the games last Saturday and Sunday
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter if you鈥檙e white, black, Asian, whatever you are: we鈥檙e just all fighting for the same thing,鈥 Imama said. 鈥淲e all want equality. We all want the same justice.鈥
The January incident wasn鈥檛 the first time that Imama endured racism on the ice. In January 2020, Imama was verbally abused by then-Bakersfield Condors defenseman Brandon Manning.
It鈥檚 fitting that 蜜柚直播 is playing Ontario this weekend night. Imama played four seasons for the Reign before the Coyotes organization traded for him last July.
鈥淚 grew into the player I am today in those four years with that organization,鈥 Imama said, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 just another game for me.鈥
蜜柚直播 coach Jay Varady said Imama gives everybody on the team a lot more confidence with his leadership and experience.
The shirts are 鈥渁 sign of how much our team cares about each other,鈥 Varady said. 鈥淭here was an unfortunate incident that happened to one of our players, and this is a positive way for our group to get behind that and just raise awareness.鈥
