By Brian Lewis
General Secretary, CANOC; Co-Chair, SIGA GRID Committee
Being ‘ not racist ‘ is not enough to eliminate racial discrimination. Anti-racism is rooted in action to eliminate racism at the individual, institutional, and structural levels. The “let bygones be bygones” narrative is intended to silence and impede necessary discussions about racism , and sabotage anti racist efforts .
Progress isn’t always progress in the Olympic and Commonwealth Sports Movement. Illusory progress is performative.
As SIGA ( Sport Integrity Global Alliance) Sport Integrity Action month enters its final week, and the Commonwealth Sport formerly the Commonwealth Games Federation( the CGF) General Assembly is also this week in Glasgow, Scotland. It is important to remind sport leaders and powerbrokers that it is important to use their platforms of power to make a meaningful difference and impact.
There is a fine line between hope and hype.
Sport is an influential platform that can act as agents of change and take strong stands on issues of social justice- fighting racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia.
It requires courage to speak truth to power even when you are part of a system where progress is not always progress . It is necessary to speak up for however long even if it means you are the voice not crying out but shouting in the wilderness. There is no shame in the fight for authentic human rights, fairness, equity and racial and social justice within the Olympic and Commonwealth sports movements.
Poverty is hard for everyone , when a family lives in intergenerational poverty, choices have to be made. If children keep having babies , nothing will ever change. We need to break the persistent cycle of generational poverty , crime and discrimination – brutal legacies of colonialism and slavery. Commonwealth Sport ( The CGF) history is steeped in sportwashing, Empire, Colonialism and Slavery. Confronting historical injustices is complex. Reparatory and Restorative justice is about exposing and coming to terms with the truth. The structures and systems built up by the legacies of the trans -Atlantic Slave trade , and colonialism must be dismantled.Commonwealth Sports ( the CGF) must acknowledge its contribution and responsibility.
At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, Americans Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett won Gold and Silver in the Men’s 400 Metres. Both men were banned for life from the Olympic Games for using their position on the podium to send a message about the treatment of Black people in America. Why advocate for the rescinding of their life ban. The answer : it was wrong and a racial injustice.
In December 2022, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board told the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) that it “will accept any accreditation request… for Vincent Matthews for any future Olympic Games”.
Reparatory and Restorative justice means coming to terms with the truth of history not erasing it, ignoring it or rewriting it.The IOC’s early history includes racism and sexism.
Why advocate in 2018, At an IOC forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina that the next IOC president should be a woman? Why advocate for the inclusion of all 50m swimming disciplines on the Olympic programme? The answer is breaking down historical sexism and racism barriers.
Now that the IOC has elected its first female President.
Are there historical, structural and systemic barriers that exclude racial diversity? Is racism in the system, Is there a need to remove the barriers , and create the culture change that will see a black or brown IOC president elected in 2037? Or is the Olympic movement on the issue of racism a broken system that refuses to fix itself?
Read the article at the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian
* This article was originaly published in Portuguese by Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, as part of it’s participation as hosting partner on SIGA’s Sport Integrity Action Month Sport Integrity Action Month 2025.
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SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.
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