Diverse enough for you?

I am a hockey fan. I think it is an exciting game, much higher speed (usually) than basically any other professional sport, and the hits are pretty cool to watch. One knock I have heard about hockey is how un-diverse it is. I can only think of a handful of African Americans (should that be hyphenated?)(can I just say that they are black without causing a ruckus)(I hate political correctness), such as Ray Emery and Jerome Iginla, and other than that the population of the hockey world is basically white. Caucasian Americans? Hmm....
Anyway, I think that is a narrow-minded view of things. Anti-racism advocates would have us believe (quite correctly I might add) that one shouldn't really pay attention to the colour of a person's skin (unless they are white, in which case you can hate the oppressive jerk)(ha ha, I kid, I kid)(...). If you were truly to do that you would see that hockey is actually as diverse, if not more diverse, than most sports. If you were to look at the make up of the hockey world, you would see that there are a large number of countries represented. Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, United States, Sweden, Russia, England, Ukraine, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Germany, France, Latvia, Paraguay, Poland, Scotland, Switzerland, Lithuania, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Belarus, South Korea, Norway, Wales, Venezuela, Austria, Brazil, Brunei, Slovenia, Denmark, Haiti, Italy, Tanzania, South Africa, Jamaica, Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Belgium, and Japan are all countries that have contributed hockey players* for the NHL. The largest provider, of course, is Canada, followed by the US. After that it is the European countries.
So the diversity of players is quite large, yet it is said to be a not very diverse sport. The reason is simply because the skin tones are pretty much the same throughout the league. Why is that?
My theory is twofold: 1. Hockey was started in Canada and nowhere else is quite as crazy about it (though Russia comes close). There just aren't as many "visible minorities" in Canada as there are in the US, especially "people of colour". 2. Hockey is a winter sport, and most countries with suitable winters seem to be Slavic/Scandanavian/predominantly white.
1. Hockey is Canadian. There aren't many black people in Canada, at least compared to our neighbours to the south. And what numbers there are don't seem quite as interested in becoming hockey players as their white brethren. Maybe it is a cultural thing, though I don't know that there is the black culture to the same extent in Canada as there is in the USA. I want to add here that the 'non-diversity' of hockey seems to be a complaint mostly from the USA. My guess is that the largest "minority" in Canada is Native Americans, followed by Asian or East Indian (though black people may be a pretty major minority, I can't say for sure). I bet I could think of many reasons why there are fewer minorities coming out of Canada into the NHL, but that would start to get into sociological aspects of our culture that I don't really feel like exploring. Or learning about. At least at the moment.
In the USA, hockey is the fourth (or lower) most popular sport (maybe third if you realise that baseball isn't so much a sport as napping made into a spectator event)(the field has grass on it because watching the grass grow is a reasonable alternative to actually watching the game), and it just doesn't seem to attract as many non-white people as the other sports.
2. Most winter bound countries are predominantly white. I have no idea why that is, but it seems that Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, et al, are mostly white. Maybe non-white people don't like cold weather as much as white people do. I honestly don't know how that has happened, but it seems to be the case. That is a broad generalisation of course. I'm sure there are many people in all countries who are black, or asian, or what have you. They just aren't the majority. And they don't play hockey. In more temperate countries/continents, such as Africa and South America and Asia, and Australia, it is more common to play games that don't require unnaturally cold temperatures, whereas in Canada and the European countries mentioned above, unnaturally cold temperatures are only too natural. Way too natural (some days I pray for global warming....). Even the southern USA doesn't get too much snow or ice so playing hockey isn't necessarily an easy thing to do. Not in the way that baseball, football, basketball, and soccer are.
Also on an interesting note was the so-called Summit Series of 1972. Outside of the Olympic games there were very few times when anyone from the West would do anything with Russia, yet Canada decided to hold an eight game hockey series with them, and hold half of the games in the USSR! Did baseball, basketball, or football do anything like that? I have my doubts.
I realise that all of this probably doesn't really matter one way or another. I guess I'm just a bit protective of my country's national past time (though not our official sport, which is lacrosse). Also, I'm tired of such a narrow definition of diverse. Just because there are no black people in something doesn't mean it's not diverse. But that's a rant for another day.
I guess that's about all I have to say for now. That and, Go Ottawa. Or Canucks. Or Avalanche. Sigh.


*Countries listed are countries of birth for the players. Many did not grow up in those countries, but still, it's a pretty impressive list.