Raffi Torres' Jay-Z Halloween Costume Sparks Unjust Outrage

Raffi Torres is one of the toughest players in the NHL, but he may have started a fight he can never win.

The Phoenix Coyotes grinder was photographed by teammate and twitter favorite Paul Bissonnette dressed as Jay-Z for a Halloween party.

The photograph can be found on Larry Brown Sports:

Torres had the dark face paint, the hat, the dress and looked the part, but the picture drew backlash immediately calling the Coyote a racist.

This whole situation hearkens us back to last year at this time when Dwayne Wade dressed up in white face paint and was Justin Timberlake for a Halloween party.

The photograph can be found at Terez Owens:

There was no backlash for Wade because people knew it was in jest and just for fun, and to think that there was anything different in Raffi Torres’ case is just ridiculous.

As much as racism still exists in this country, it should not be an issue in this case because both men were not being racist, instead playing dress up for a holiday.

There are plenty of discussions on the topic, but Yahoo! hockey guru Greg Wyshynski and ESPN personality Bomani Jones had one of the more interesting exchanges:

The reason racism still exists is because we as a society can’t let it go. Neither of these pictures has any malicious intent and they are just photos of two men having fun.

As with every situation like this, in a society that is too sensitive it’s better to avoid anything that could be misconstrued as racist.

Raffi Torres should be smart and formally apologize to anyone the costume offended and express the fact that he isn’t racist and that it was a costume that was handled in the wrong way.

Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone’s entitled to second chances.

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