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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

The survival of sports in an era of global war

by

BRIAN LEWIS
480 days ago
20231028
Brian Lewis Things That Matter Logo NEW

Brian Lewis Things That Matter Logo NEW

Giv­en the racist his­to­ry of Eu­rope through colo­nial­ism and slav­ery and the lega­cy of struc­tur­al, sys­temic, and in­sti­tu­tion­al racism that works against the hu­man rights and dig­ni­ty of black, brown, mi­nori­ties, and in­dige­nous hu­man be­ings. The is­sue of repara­to­ry jus­tice and apol­o­giz­ing for the crimes against hu­man­i­ty per­pe­trat­ed by Colo­nial­ism and Slav­ery are still to be ad­dressed in a mean­ing­ful and ac­tion­able man­ner.

Glob­al geopol­i­tics re­veals that it's still all about who has more might rules the roost. The Glob­al al­phas hold sway and can com­mand the nar­ra­tive by con­trol­ling the me­dia. The es­ca­la­tion of the con­flict be­tween Is­rael and Hamas is a case in point. The truth of the his­to­ry of the con­flict means noth­ing to the rulers of the West.

All forms of ter­ror­ism are wrong. Killing of chil­dren is hideous. The bru­tal­i­ty of at­tacks on cit­i­zens can­not be jus­ti­fied or ra­tio­nal­ized. It's in­hu­mane. That be­ing said. The one-sided nar­ra­tive that de­lib­er­ate­ly un­der­plays one side to em­bold­en the oth­er side and their al­lies high­lights why there can nev­er be peace on earth. Pow­er­ful men and their egos. Colo­nial­ism, apartheid, im­pe­ri­al­ism, and neo-colo­nial­ism in all their it­er­a­tions cre­ate in­jus­tices, in­equal­i­ties, and dis­crim­i­na­tion.

It's not on­ly an aca­d­e­m­ic, in­tel­lec­tu­al, and the­o­ret­i­cal dis­cus­sion. Racism can­not be leg­is­lat­ed away if it is in the cul­ture, hearts, and minds of those who were so­cialised to be racist and are the so­cial, eco­nom­ic, and fi­nan­cial ben­e­fi­cia­ries of a racist sys­tem and ide­ol­o­gy.

Hu­man Rights and Racism in Sport – How many sports ad­min­is­tra­tors are aware of or have read the Dur­ban De­c­la­ra­tion and Pro­gramme of Ac­tion‘s con­tri­bu­tion to strength­en­ing the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights and the Vi­en­na De­c­la­ra­tion and Pro­gramme of Ac­tion? Achiev­ing racial equal­i­ty in sports re­quires an un­der­stand­ing of dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ences.

Sport bod­ies and race equal­i­ty – I am aware that for many the con­stant talk about racism and sports is dis­con­cert­ing as there is the be­lief that it's an un­nec­es­sary dis­trac­tion that drags sport in­to ar­eas that it ought not to be.

The re­but­tal to that is that in the In­ter­na­tion­al and Con­ti­nen­tal con­text, it's al­most ir­re­spon­si­ble to not un­der­stand the im­pact of glob­al geopol­i­tics on the in­ter­na­tion­al sport.

Pol­i­tics is im­pact­ing sports. Al­ways has notwith­stand­ing the claims of in­ter­na­tion­al sports lead­ers. It's an il­lu­sion and out­right un­truth to say it's not so. The root cause of most of the is­sues im­pact­ing sports - good and bad can be said to be be­cause of pol­i­tics.

As the war be­tween Is­rael and Hamas es­ca­lates even­tu­al­ly sport and sport­ing events and ac­tiv­i­ties will be drawn in, es­pe­cial­ly with the Olympics less than a year away to be held in Paris, France, the World Cup qual­i­fiers is al­ready in mo­tion.

Both Pales­tine and Is­rael have na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees rec­og­nized by the IOC. As with the Rus­sia and Ukraine War. What im­pact will the sav­agery and bru­tal­i­ty of mod­ern-day war­fare and geopol­i­tics have on the París 2024 Olympics?

More im­por­tant­ly what im­pact will it have on the ath­letes - young peo­ple? Sports is fac­ing sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges giv­en the geopo­lit­i­cal re­al­i­ties. To ig­nore the per­ils is a dere­lic­tion of du­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

The USA's shad­ow and fin­ger­print are on al­most every eco­nom­ic, fi­nan­cial, and po­lit­i­cal as­pect of glob­al sports. That's not to say or de­ny that small­er coun­tries have not ben­e­fit­ted in some way form or fash­ion. The re­al ques­tion is at what cost? Is there eq­ui­ty? Or is it that it mat­ters not?

Soon­er rather than lat­er the day of reck­on­ing will land on the doorstep of In­ter­na­tion­al Sport Fed­er­a­tions and Or­ga­ni­za­tions and they will be judged by their ac­tions, not just their talk.


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