MSU Hockey Player ‘Confused’ By Big Ten’s Non-Action In Racial Incident
Jagger Joshua was called racial slurs in a recent game with Ohio State. Since then, Big Ten Officials have remained strangely quiet.
Jagger Was Called Racial Slurs In A Game On November 11
Spartans senior forward Jagger Joshua, who is from from Dearborn, was involved in an incident during a Big Ten Conference hockey game with Ohio State on November 11.
In that game, an Ohio State player called him several names, including a racial slur. Joshua is African-American.
Officials at the game heard the slurs and gave the offending OSU player a game misconduct and disqualified him from the game. The incident was then reported to Big Ten officials, who have yet to taken any action to further penalize the player, which has left MSU coaches and Joshua mystified. Both expected the league or the Ohio State University to suspend the player.
In a Tweet this week, Joshua expressed his disappointment.
Player Not Identified By Joshua, But The Game Record Shows Who It Was
The only player issued a misconduct that night was Kamil Sadlocha, a senior from Carpentersville, IL.
He continues to play for the Buckeyes. The two teams will play again in January.
The Big Ten Conference issued a statement on the incident, and announced that no further penalties will be issued, and that the case was closed.
"Due to the absence of indisputable evidence presented to the conference, the conference has not imposed further disciplinary action," the Big Ten's statement reads.
"The inaction has left me feeling confused and pessimistic about the movement of diversity within hockey culture," Joshua said in his response. "The ignorance of racism does not belong in our game, and I feel that I need to make people aware that this incident occurred, because without acknowledgment, the problem gets worse."
The Ohio State Department of Athletics responded to an email from 10TV about the incident saying the department and the hockey program "worked collaboratively with the Big Ten Conference to come to a resolution in response to the allegation of misconduct toward the Big Ten sportsmanship policy."