Just as a point of comparison (and to keep the history alive), even though ice hockey has the reputation as a violent sport, this is the most violent incident I ever knew of (although I'm sure there are others):

The Donald Brashear-Marty McSorley Incident

It took place 2/21/2000, so you can already see how far back we have to go. Interestingly as relative to the current incident, the attacker McSorley was white and the victim Brashear was black.

I think the NHL has ever had at most four black players. But you can see in the article (and I bet in any other writeup you find on the incident), that no one even mentions race.

We never appreciated how good things were without the constant and intense racial division.