Inclusive Employers A focus on racism & racial inequality in sport
Please note : This article contains references to police brutality and the ripple effects of racism.
Racism in sports and racial inequality are often only touched upon or brought to light when an incident has occurred. Zoiey Smale, Inclusion & Diversity Consultant (Sport), discusses racism in sport, highlights the ripple effects, and details what can and should do to address this issue.
The 21st March marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racism. Organised by the United Nations, the day, often shortened to the International Day Against Racism, annually recognises discrimination that continues to undermine and persist in our society, at work, in sport, or in our everyday lives.
This annual awareness date was initially formed in commemoration of the 1960 police massacre in South Africa, which killed 69 people demonstrating against the apartheid “pass laws”.
The day is a time to reflect on the event and identify how racial inequality, discrimination and racism are still prevalent in modern day society.
In order to continually tackle inherited structures, archaic systems and challenge institutions on racism, the day is a reminder that we still need collective action. Tackling racism should be considered to be everyone’s responsibility. It is not enough for us to say we are not racist anymore – we all must actively work to ensure we are individually and organisationally anti-racist if we are truly going to eliminate racism in all its forms. Learn more about racism and the Equality Act and your legal responsibilities as an employer.
What does racism in sport look like?
When we think of racism in sport, we often hear about the overt forms of it. We recently heard of racism in Professional Football where former Crawley FC manager, John Yems, was banned from football for 15 months after an investigation into 16 alleged racist comments he made to his players.
There have also been incidents in Women’s basketball where Sarah Chan a Black woman, reported incidences where she has been spat in the face for the colour of her skin. The sport and physical activity sector is far from immune to bias, racism and discrimination.
Racism and racialised inequalities significantly influence ethnically diverse communities accessing and participating in sport and physical activity. Research has suggested that experiences of ethnically diverse communities significantly differ from their white counterparts.
The Tackling Racism And Racial Inequality In Sport report gives an insight into the depth and deep-rooted nature of racism in sport. The race review findings were most recently updated after two years of the initial report, which was conducted by UK Sport and the Home Countries Sport Councils.
Sport England report that in the six months since their last update, there continues to be incidents of racism in sport, which highlights the importance of the work that is being done in this space.
It has been reported that after former England rugby union player Luther Burrell spoke out about racism in rugby, there was an influx of messages from parents confirming that their children were also the victims of racism at age-group level. We also saw the detailed accounts of Azeem Rafiq’s experiences in front of the Department for Culture Media and Sport Committee in December. Lord Patel has since announced his resignation as Chair of Yorkshire County cricket club.
We know that incidents like this can go unreported and when we look at the sports ecosystem, they only scratch the surface. These incidents not only highlight the scale of abuse and discrimination faced by individuals within sport, but they also serve as a constant reminder of the work that is still to be done.
How else does racism and racial inequality present itself?
Intersections between gender, sexual orientation, class, age and disability also influence experiences in sport.
Dress codes and uniforms make room to turn a lot of “isms” into policies since typical standards of professional dress and sports uniforms are, at the core built around, racist, sexist, classist views.
We saw FINA banning swimming caps designed for afro hair to be worn at international competitions – such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Soul caps are swimming hats designed for the Black community. Afro hair is naturally drier than other hair because it has fewer cell layers. The chemicals found in swimming pools can dry it out more, leading to damage. Current swimming hats are often problematic due to elasticity. Having uniform and mandatory dress that is designed in a specific way, can be a huge barrier but the reality is that the historical and ongoing lack of diversity across the sector means that barriers such as these will continue to emerge if we cannot find a way to bring in the experience and insight required as we design products, programmes, policies and strategies.
Professionalism as a racial construct can manifest itself in different ways, including areas such as pay and promotion.
A study conducted by Northwestern University concluded that White applicants received 36% more call-backs for jobs than equally qualified applicants with Black-sounding names. People with classically South Asian and East Asian names were 28% less likely to get called for an interview than their White counterparts. In the United Kingdom, a person named Adam was offered three times as many interviews as someone named Mohammed. Before Black and Brown communities can even think about applying for a role, there is the risk that unconscious bias may put individuals at a significant disadvantage. It is not uncommon for applicants to fake a name on job applications to almost cancel out biases or racial stereotyping.
Over representation and underrepresentation
Black athletes are usually given credit for their “natural athleticism,” while white athletes are credited for their “hard work,” “discipline” and “knowledge of a game”.
These sport stereotypes can also have an impact on people gaining sports roles. Most employers are not concerned with an employee’s natural athletic abilities, however, stereotypes of being ‘athletically superior’ for the most part could begin to explain why Black and Brown communities are overrepresented in sport security roles.
When stereotypes begin to insinuate that certain races have certain characteristics, whether they be positive or negative, they fall into the same racist generalisations that are at the root of racism and race-based discrimination.
Associate professor Cynthia Frisby published a study examining the media depictions of Black male athletes. After analysing a decade’s worth of news clippings she found that Black male athletes receive “significantly more negative coverage” in the form of hard news stories about domestic and sexual violence; whereas their White counterparts are the hero protagonists of feature stories that lay bare the shades of their humanity. Clearly, words matter. Words hurt. And yet there are few, if any, consequences for bigoted language.
Stopping the ripple effects
Most human attitudes and behaviours have both a genetic and an environmental component.
This is also true for fear of others who are different to us. When people and organisations we trust talk in such a way, it has a profound effect on us.
It can shape our beliefs about what we might think are rational issues as we tend to adopt a common position on a topic to signal that we are part of a group, just like football fans wear certain colours to show club loyalty.
Even strong individuals who stand up to oppressive regimes typically have shared ideals and norms with other members of a resistance movement. This tribalism can all feel very visceral and natural because, well, in a way, it is. It fires up the primal parts of our brain that evolved for such responses. So when we begin to embark on a journey of anti-racism it has to be as a team.
So how do we start addressing racism in sport?
- Adopt anti-racist and inclusive language.
- Actively and consistently challenge racism as active bystanders, allies, and accomplices.
- Develop an organisational anti-racism strategy and communicate this widely.
- Undertake an ethnicity pay gap report regardless of the size of your organisation.
- Deal with detractors in your direct team or department.
- Proactively and robustly deal with race related issues.
- Review and redesign, when necessary, policies and processes – consider recruitment, professional development, procurement and pensions as a starting point.
- Embed the use Equality Impact Assessments and continuously review the impact of these assessments
- Take an anti-racist approach to recruitment and consider how you can diversify your talent pool.
To find out more about how we can support you with addressing racism and developing an anti-racist culture get in touch using the form below.