By Liza Ware, Senior Safeguarding Consultant
In last year’s Black History Month blog Liza Ware talked about her intersectionality when it comes to sport. This years Black History Month focuses on Reclaiming the Narratives, and in this blog, Liza looks at why it's important for sport and physical activity organisations to reflect on how they are tackling inequalities.
Within sport and physical activity, we should consider the underrepresentation of Black and Brown athletes in certain sports. People from diverse ethnic backgrounds face systemic barriers and structural inequalities that can negatively impact on opportunities to engage in movement. They are missing out on something that is vital to their physical, emotional and social development.
Although we see Black and Brown athletes having great success in specific sports, we still see an underrepresentation within the supporting roles e.g. coaching, sports leadership, sports medical support etc. Black History Month is a fantastic time for sports and physical activity organisations to reflect and consider what barriers there are within their space and put effective measures in place to redress the imbalance.
Tackling inequalities
Uniting the Movement is a 10-year vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity. The vision focuses on when ‘we move together, we are stronger, that we all have a role to play within society like never before’. Through sport and physical activity, we can come together to bring about meaningful change within our communities, society and our country.
By recognising inequalities, such as socio-economic status and ethnicity, we can put measures in place to enable all people to access sport and physical activities in a safe and inclusive environment.
This blog is coming from a race perspective, but these principles apply to all protected characteristics. Let’s not forget we are people made up of key features that influence personal and social identity; race and ethnicity is only one aspect: our sex, gender, ability, sexuality, beliefs are more. Accepting and celebrating our differences will make us a stronger community.
Children's rights
Every child and young person have the right to benefit from being active in a safe, positive and trusted environment, and to have an equal chance to achieve their potential. It makes this very clear in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.
"The Convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The convention is universal—these rights apply to every child and the convention entitles every child to claim them. It also explains how adults and governments must work together to make sure all children can enjoy all their rights." - Taken from the UNICEF Website.
- Non-discrimination (Article 2)
- Right to be heard (Article 12)
- Be safe from violence (Article 19)
- Relax and play (Article 31)
What positive actions can we take?
Training is one way we can promote diversity and inclusion, this will help people to understand the barriers faced by marginalised groups within society and enable them to take intentional, proactive steps to be inclusive by tackling structural inequalities.
In our webinar Racism and safeguarding in sport, Ineke Houtenbos, NSPCC Senior Consultant, talks about terminology, challenges negative stereotype, unconscious bias, social inequalities, the different types of discrimination that can take place against Black, Asian, and Ethnic Minoritised individuals and the steps sports clubs and organisations can take to be inclusive and prevent racism in their setting.
“As we celebrate Black History Month with the theme ‘Reclaiming Narratives,’ we have a unique opportunity to challenge conventional wisdom and knowledge about Black and Brown communities. This theme allows us to celebrate our voices, our contributions, our art, and our joy. It is crucial for us, as a child protection charity, to always facilitate hearing the child’s voice, ensuring that every narrative is heard and valued.
"Let’s come together to celebrate our narratives and inspire each other to create a more inclusive and understanding community.” Ineke Houtenbos, NSPCC Senior Consultant.