Vancouver Sun makes racist Jordan Subban cutline, apologize

Sep 23, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks defenseman Jordan Subban (67) celebrates his goal against San Jose Sharks goaltender Alex Stalock (32) during the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sport

Somebody at the Vancouver Sun made a regrettable mistake following the Vancouver Canucks preseason split squad win at the Rogers Arena on Tuesday in referring to Jordan Subban, who scored a big goal to begin his preseason campaign. The “third” Subban brother behind more famous brothers PK and Malcom, Jordan scored on Tuesday to make the headlines of the brighter of the two split squad performances by the Canucks yesterday when Vancouver won at home against the Sharks.

However the Vancouver Sun may not have thought that Canucks fans would be able to identify the third brother of one of hockey’s most famous families, referring to Jordan as “the dark guy in the middle” in what will be one of the worst cutlines you see from the Vancouver media this season.

Naturally, the folks at the Sun apologized for the incident claiming that the cutline should never have been written or published for that matter. Regrettably apologizing to Jordan Subban for the incident which caused a minor Twitter storm last night.

It is journalism 101 to not use somebody’s race as a way of identifying them in a cutline so it is hard to feel much sympathy for the Sun staff member who came up with the now infamous “dark guy in the middle” identifier as the whole ordeal was poor taste by the paper. Apologizing is the right thing to do and it will serve as a lesson for the rest of the Canucks media when it comes to handling the NHL’s diversity in a manner that is suitable for the age we live in.