Talking about race and racism in sport

On 1st March 2024, I was invited to give a talk at the Tackling Racism in Sport Conference hosted by UK Sport and the Home Nations Sports Councils. I have been blown away by the feedback. 
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I am all about action rather than talk, but one of the reasons I see for the inaction is that we haven’t moved on from how we talk about race and racism in sport in ways that is not always conducive to progress. These have become normalised as part of the discourse. 

So much of what we say indicates our mindset or lack of capability to lead and problem solve on anti-racism. How can we acknowledge this and move forward? I hope we can recognise some of the common but unhelpful phrases used during conversations about tackling racism in sport such as those outlined in this blog.

Let’s move on from these unhelpful takes about racism in sport:

1. “The athlete went out there and rose above it”
2. “If this [incident relating to another form of oppression] was racism it would be taken more seriously”
3. “The real issue is about class”
4. “It’s society’s problem”
5. “This is shocking, I can’t believe this is still happening in 2024”
6. “We are anti-racist. We have invested in a number of schemes to increase participation and promote inclusion”​

They prevent us from progressing anti-racism work because:

1. Those impacted cannot ‘’rise above’ racism, nor should they be expected to. We need to centre the wellbeing impact of racism on people involved in sport, especially athletes. Defaulting to topics we are more comfortable to talk about, such as social class,  is a way to avoid the reality of racism in sport or shift the focus away from anti-racism.

2. Thinking that it is supportive to be surprised at things that those with lived experiences live with daily can show a lack of awareness. It is not surprising, but scandalous.

3. Intersectionality is a thing! Making false equivalences or compare racism issues to other forms of discrimination often result in further exclusion and a race to the bottom for all marginalised communities.

4. Using systemic racism in society as an excuse for inaction shows a lack of responsibility from sport to tackle racial inequality and the way it specifically manifests in its context and culture. 
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5. When we equate diversity and inclusion work with anti-racism work, it diminishes our ability to reimagine a sporting world that is truly anti-racist rather than just including racial diversity in a broken system..

This isn’t about avoiding ‘saying the wrong thing’ but avoiding downplaying the impact of racism in sport or reinforcing inequalities in the language we use. Let’s move the conversation along so we can set our sights on meaningful progress and move anti-racism work along too!