At 8:59 PM 1/18/96, greenie wrote:
>For
>example, much of Boston has been very hush-hush regarding the prominence of
>BU's Mike Grier. It wasn't until Grier began to lead the country in scoring
>that the press "felt OK" to run stories on him. Even then, the press (with
>the exception of Sports Illustrated) very carefully skirted the race issue.
 
Well, it wasn't until Grier began scoring up a storm early in his sophomore
year that he was even worthy of a national story - or a New England story.
 
It has seemed to me that Boston area hockey fans, or HE fans, haven't cared
about Grier's race.  I forget about it myself until someone brings it up.
People here see him as a "hockey player", regardless of the fact that some
of the national media refers to him as a "black hockey player".   I think
the Boston media also tends to concentrate on Grier's hockey skills,
perhaps because they also see him every game.  At least, you'll notice that
the media who cover hockey regularly do this.
 
BU people or others from here can jump in on whether they think I am right
on this one or not.  The question of him as a role model and so on is a
separate one...to me and many others in this area, the guy is just another
player - well, not "just another", but you get the point.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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