Sports: Moving Beyond Performative Action

The Need for Genuine Change in Sports: Moving Beyond Performative Action

In recent years, the sports industry has made strides towards greater inclusivity, but there’s a growing sentiment among marginalized communities that these efforts often amount to little more than performative action. While organizations display slogans of equality and justice, those on the margins feel no significant change in behaviour, which marks progress. They understand that real change requires more than just checking boxes, saying they support inclusion, signing up to initiatives and making public statements; it requires a deep and genuine commitment to understanding and dismantling structural privilege. Marginalized communities are acutely aware of the systems that perpetuate inequities. They see how initiatives can often be surface-level, designed by hugely well-intended purposes, but continue to end up being more for public relations than for true progress.

This is why more and more despite all the work being done in the space, so some they still need to keep calling out organizations that engage in tokenism—because they know that without understanding and addressing the underlying systems of privilege, real change cannot occur.

The behavior of companies externally and internally speaks louder than their words. Marginalized people observe actions, policies, and the long-term impacts of initiatives. They know that slogans are easy, but changing the culture and structure of an organization and it’s people is not. It requires a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths, to listen deeply to those who have been excluded, and to make substantial changes that may not always be popular or easy.

To dismantle structural privilege, those who benefit from it must first acknowledge its existence and their role within it. This understanding is often lacking because privilege can insulate individuals from the realities faced by others.

Here are steps organizations in sports can take to foster genuine change: ? ? ? ?

1.? ? ? Listen and Learn: Engage in honest conversations with marginalized communities. Understand their experiences and perspectives. This is not about defending existing practices but about truly hearing and valuing their input. ? ? ? ? 2.? ? ? Commit to Transparency: Make the processes and criteria for decision-making clear. This builds trust and shows a commitment to fairness and accountability. ? ? ?

3.? ? ? Implement Inclusive Policies, Procedures, Systems and Processes: Go beyond diversity quotas. Ensure that policies, procedures, systems and processes are in place to support and elevate marginalized voices at all levels of the organization. ? ? ? ?

4.? ? ? Hold Leadership Accountable: Leaders should be champions of inclusivity, not just figureheads, be vulnerable in the persuit for gaining knowledge and understanding. Their actions should reflect the organization’s stated values and they should be held accountable for making real progress, it's not just the people low down the chain doing all the leg work, leaders need to engage, support and demonstrate impact. ? ? ? ?

5.? ? ? Invest in Long-Term Change: Allocate resources to initiatives that address structural inequities. Real change is hard and requires Consistent, Persistent effort. It’s about moving beyond performative gestures to create an environment where everyone can thrive. This doesn't just mean mentoring black and brown people. Statistics show many Black and Brown people are overqualified for the roles they perform, it's about sponsoring them in rooms they are not in, inviting them into the room, and providing a seat at the table. Also understanding the most marginalized in society and the workplace and creating equity.

6. Commit to Collaboration: The most obvious example of exclusion is not being invited to the party/the meeting/the project. Silo working despite being agile and quick to get things done, by it's very nature leads to exclusion and often a bias towards people who think and do things the same. Collaboration with a diverse set of people is the real key to inclusive practice.

The sports industry has the power to lead by example, showing that when words are matched by meaningful action, we can begin to dismantle the structures of privilege that have excluded so many for so long.

#Inclusion #Diversity #Sports #RealChange #StructuralEquity #ListenAndLearn #Accountability