Dr Rudolph Al­leyne

In­sti­tu­tion­al racism, mul­ti-racial re­sis­tance, the lack of di­ver­si­ty and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism are well doc­u­ment­ed through­out his­to­ry. These pat­terns of think­ing and be­hav­ing have per­me­at­ed most so­ci­eties for cen­turies, even be­ing felt in the sport­ing are­na. Racism in sports start­ed long be­fore the Amer­i­can Na­tion­al Foot­ball League (NFL) play­er Col­in Kaeper­nick took a knee. Many is­sues, in­clud­ing stack­ing (play­ers from var­i­ous racial and eth­nic groups play­ing spe­cif­ic po­si­tions), to­kenism (lim­it­ed in­clu­sion of play­ers from di­verse groups to give the ap­pear­ance of di­ver­si­ty or equal­i­ty), the in­sen­si­tive use of eth­nic and cul­tur­al­ly mas­cots, lo­gos and team names, un­fair dis­tri­b­u­tion of eco­nom­ic re­wards and the use of quo­ta and in­sti­tu­tion­al racism in sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions, have been ex­am­ined and ven­ti­lat­ed for many years.

The ex­pe­ri­ences of Unit­ed States ath­letes Jack­ie Robin­son (base­ball), Muham­mad Ali (box­ing), Jesse Owens (ath­let­ics), John Car­los (ath­let­ics), Tom­mie Smith (ath­let­ics) and West In­di­ans George Headley (crick­et) and Frank Wal­cott (trade union­ism/pol­i­tics) and many oth­ers, have served as so­cial, psy­cho­log­i­cal and po­lit­i­cal me­men­tos in the his­to­ry of the dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­sti­tu­tion­al racial prac­tices in sport. Racism in sport has utilised a philo­soph­i­cal ra­tio­nale based on a com­bi­na­tion of so­cial Dar­win­ism and white priv­i­lege, where “blacks” (non-whites) were con­sid­ered more ath­let­ic while “whites” were con­sid­ered more in­tel­lec­tu­al. This served as the ba­sis for stack­ing, to­kenism, in­sti­tu­tion­al racism and the es­tab­lish­ment of the prover­bial glass ceil­ing in sport.

De­spite not be­ing a cur­rent ma­jor is­sue in the Caribbean, sport in the re­gion has a his­to­ry based on racism, be it crick­et, swim­ming, wa­ter-po­lo, or golf. Rem­nants of in­sti­tu­tion­al racism, priv­i­lege and prej­u­dice still ex­ist to some de­gree to­day in sports like horse rac­ing, ral­ly­ing, po­lo, eques­tri­an and sail­ing. This too has been a part of the his­to­ry of West In­dies crick­et, which was dom­i­nat­ed by the white elite un­til the 1950s, even though pri­or to this pe­ri­od the team was cap­tained by a black play­er (George Headley 1947-48). Racism ex­ist­ed across all stra­ta of the re­gion­al crick­et­ing es­tab­lish­ment and with­in most in­ter­na­tion­al clubs and or­gan­i­sa­tions. Equal­ly, Cau­casians in the Caribbean may have ex­pe­ri­enced var­i­ous forms of re­verse racism in some sports which may now be dom­i­nat­ed by oth­er di­verse groups.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, when the di­verse groups gain ac­cess to these sport­ing dis­ci­plines, they may be al­lowed to main­tain their eth­nic and cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty (cul­tur­al mo­sa­ic the­o­ry), or co­erced to as­sim­i­late in­to the dom­i­nant group, which cre­ates a fur­ther so­cial dilem­ma. True di­ver­si­ty can on­ly be re­alised if the di­verse groups are al­lowed to up­hold their cul­tur­al and eth­nic dif­fer­ences, which rep­re­sents au­then­tic mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism. This chal­lenge is not unique to sport, but af­fects the en­tire so­ci­ety.

In to­day’s sport­ing world there is still re­sis­tance to many is­sues re­lat­ed to di­ver­si­ty and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism. For di­verse groups, the ad­mit­tance in­to many or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions, be it col­lege or coun­try club, is met with sev­er­al forms of in­sti­tu­tion­al racism, prej­u­dice and priv­i­lege. How­ev­er, once wel­comed, ex­pec­ta­tions are high for those who have made it with­in these or­gan­i­sa­tions, whether by virtue of their abil­i­ties or to­kenism. Those on the pe­riph­ery ex­pect those on the in­side to be trail­blaz­ers for di­ver­si­ty, and for the most part those on the in­side feel pres­sured to ad­e­quate­ly rep­re­sent per­sons from their cul­tur­al, eth­nic, or racial groups.

Sports is said to pro­mote equal­i­ty, a lev­el play­ing field and so­cial mo­bil­i­ty. Many may con­sid­er sport to be a mi­cro­cosm of pre­vail­ing cul­ture, which recre­ates what is re­in­forced by the so­cial con­structs of the wider so­ci­ety. How­ev­er, sport can serve as the cat­a­lyst for gen­uine cul­tur­al, eth­nic, racial and gen­der equal­i­ty in the Caribbean. Such is the ex­am­ple of the Eng­lish Pre­mier League, where play­ers are now wear­ing “Black Lives Mat­ter” on their jer­seys in­stead of their names. This may serve to pro­mote an un­bi­ased en­vi­ron­ment which en­cour­ages a cul­ture of in­clu­siv­i­ty for all cul­tures, eth­nic­i­ties, gen­ders and racial groups. Ul­ti­mate­ly, the goal of sport is to in­spire each per­son to be the best ath­let­ic spec­i­men based on their abil­i­ties, re­gard­less of their her­itage, class, or creed.

Dr Rudolph Al­leyne is head of the Cave Hill Acad­e­my of Sport and can be reached at Rudolph.al­leyne@cave­hill.uwi.edu