Take a Knee: Sport, Racism and Beyond Symbolic Gestures - Professor Marcia Wilson
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Take a Knee: Sport, Racism and Beyond Symbolic Gestures… Professor Marcia Wilson
Outline
• Minneapolis / New York City, May 2020
• What is race, racism?
• Racial trauma
• Being the change…
2
What does Minneapolis and NYC have to do with racism in sport?
3
A light was shone on racism …
Institutional racism – Macpherson report, 1999.
"The collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and
professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It
can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour that amount to
discrimination through prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist
stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”
Three important points in defining racism:
1. one group believes itself to be superior (belief)
2. the group that believes itself to be superior has the potential to carry out the
racist behaviour (power), and
3. racism affects multiple racial groups (impact)
(Solorzano, Miguel, et al, 1999)
4
But this is not new…
5
Anton Ferdinand /
John Terry
Eniola Aluko/
Mark Sampson/FA
Liverpool FC showing
support for Suarez
following the racial abuse
directed at Patrice Evra
6
Whiteness and power structures in sport
What is it that allows and sustains the racist incidents in
sport?
Thinking beyond individual attitudinal racism…
White privilege is a system of opportunities and benefits
conferred upon people simply because they are white
(Solorzano & Yosso, 2002)
Whiteness is about the structures and systems within
society that produce privileges for people racialized as
white.
7
Premier League Managers
The colour
of power
Editors of National
Newspapers
CEOs of National Governing Bodies of Sport
8
Newspapers…
In his post, England international Sterling cites newspaper headlines about
team-mates Tosin Adarabioyo and Phil Foden buying houses
9
What is the personal impact of racism?
Racial trauma – discrimination that evokes similar symptoms to Post traumatic
stress disorder (anxiety, depression, negative personal thoughts)
(Comas-Diaz et al, 2019)
Different to PTSD due to ongoing individual and collective exposure and re-
exposure due to race-based stress
• Indirect experiences of discrimination can still evoke PTSD
• Microaggressive behaviours, shaming and incivilities evoke trauma
• Recounting the experience
• The experience of not be taken seriously / doubting it happened
10Carter, R.T (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counselling Psychologist, 35, 13-105 11
Athletes and medical treatment…
• Black athletes are perceived as having higher pain tolerance –
mediated by class (Druckman, et al, 2018)
• Black athletes are less likely to receive pain medication
(but also fewer when it does happen) (Anderson, et al, 2009)
• Medics bed-side manner
• A lack of trust in the medical profession
• Henrietta Lacks
• Mississippi junior docs & appendix / hysterectomy
• Tuskegee Syphilis study
• Black women 5 times more likely to die in childbirth compared to white
women
12Implications for teaching in college and HE
• Include knowledge and impact of racism in curriculum
• Lecturers / tutors to engage in work to assess their own racial identity
• Address inequalities related to the degree award gap at
undergraduate degree level
• 81.4% of white students = good degree
• 70% of Asian students = good degree
• 58.8% of Black students = good degree
13Beyond symbolic gestures
• Educate yourself
• Be an ally in the face of
injustice – use your
privilege for good
• Hire underrepresented
groups – use positive
action (Equality Act, 2010)
• Mentor someone
younger / less
experienced than you
• Good intentions do not
Black Lives Matter: Arsenal players
generate change - be
anti-racist, not non-
racist! 1415
Discussion questions – groups of 6-/7 people (15 mins)
1. What are the barriers / challenges to being an ally in the workplace and how can you
overcome them?
2. What are two things that you can do within your power to promote equality?
16References
• Macpherson, W. (1999). The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Access the report
here
• Solorzano, D., Ceja, M., Yosso, T. J. (1999). Critical Race Theory, Racial
Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experience of African-
American College Students. The Journal of Negro Education, November.
Access the article here
• Comas-Diaz, L., Hall, G.N., & Neville, H.A. (2019. Racial trauma: Theory,
research and healing. Introduction to the special issue. American
Psychologist, 74, 1, 1-5. Access the article here
• Druckman, J.N., Trawalter, S., Montes, I., Fredendall, A., Kanter, N., &
Rubinstein, A.P. (2018). Racial bias in sport medical staff’s perceptions of
others’ pain. The Journal of Social Psychology. 158, 6, 721-729. Access the
article here
• Anderson, K. O., Green, C. R., & Payne, R. (2009). Racial and ethnic
disparities in pain: Causes and consequences of unequal care. The Journal
of Pain, 10, 12, 1187–1204. Access the article here
17Additional reading
• Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017). Why I’m no longer talking to white people
about race. London, Bloomsbury Circus.
• Sarpong, J. (2020). The Power of Privilege: How white people can
challenge racism. London, HarperCollins.
• Wilson, M., & Jones, L. (2020). Dear senior university leaders: what
will you say you did to address racism in higher education? Access
article here
18THANK YOU
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