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2010 45: 147International Review for the Sociology of SportPrisca Bruno Massao and Kari Fasting

Race and racism: Experiences of black Norwegian athletes  

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Race and racism: Experiences of black Norwegian athletes

Prisca Bruno MassaoNorwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway

Kari FastingNorwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway

AbstractThis article examines race and racism in sport based on the experiences of black Norwegian athletes. The findings are based on in-depth qualitative interviews with nine female and eight male black athletes. Race and racism concepts are explored to draw attention to different approaches of understanding racism in sport, from the individual to the institutional level. The findings add to previous critical scholarship which cautioned that sport should not be taken for granted as free from racial inequalities. By using Critical Race Theory (CRT), we examine how racializations of racial minorities in sport from mere stereotypes to the ways institutions function, work to produce and reproduce racial inequalities. We argue for a more systematic and critical analysis of contemporary Norwegian sport for a better understanding of how race relations and racism are exercised. This is expected to contribute in the development of better and more effective policies to deal with racial and ethnic diversity in contemporary Norwegian sport.

Keywordsinstitutional racism, Norway, race, racism, sport

The purpose of this article is to examine how race and racism are experienced by black Norwegian athletes. In contemporary society, sport is viewed by some as a site of social equality where everybody, regardless of a social or economic background, can excel. With the substantial increase of immigrants from Asia, Africa and South America, the interaction potential of sport has been argued to be a suitable vehicle to integrate such groups in Norwegian society (Strandbu, 2002; Stortingsmelding nr. 39, 2006–2007; Walseth, 2005). Despite the interaction potential found in sport, it has been cautioned to avoid taking sport for granted as an institution free from ethnic and racial discriminations (Krouwel et al., 2006; Lunde, 2006). According to Enjolras et al. (2005), only one out of

Article

Corresponding author:Prisca Bruno Massao, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Postboks 4014 Ullevål Stadion, 0806 Oslo, NorwayEmail: prisca.bruno.massao@nih.no

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

45(2) 147–162© The Author(s) 2010

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148 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 45(2)

the nine Norwegian sport organizations which sought to use sport as an arena for racial and ethnic integration, had concrete plans about such claims. Another study of youth sport participation in Oslo revealed that, the gap difference in sport participation between ethnic majority and ethnic minority has increased in the past 10 years from 15 percent in 1996 to 19 percent in 2006 (Strandbu and Bakken, 2007). Surprisingly, this gap has increased in the same period that different integration, inclusion and anti-racism pro-grams have been intensified in Norwegian sport. Such discrepancies and contradictory results show that, despite the claims of sports’ potentials for integrating individuals from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, caution should be exercised as there is still a wide gap between rhetoric and reality.

Furthermore, racism has been pointed out to be among the factors hindering full participation of racial minorities in sport (Andersson, 2002; Aurstad, 2005; Friberg and Gautun, 2007; Strandbu, 2006). Given the controversies surrounding the positions of racial minorities in contemporary sport, in this article we aim to examine how race and racism are experienced by the racial minorities in Norwegian sport?

Conceptual and theoretical frameworksRace is increasingly becoming a problematic concept, due to its continuing significance and changing meaning (Omi and Winant, 2004). Despite the controversy, we sustain the race concept in this article to illuminate the very contested nature of race relations and the process of racial formation (Omi and Winant, 2004). We don’t favour replacement of race with other supposedly more accepted concepts like ethnicity, nationality, or class. For us, doing that is to deny the social significance of visibility, historical legacy of race and the outcome of racialization or racial formations. As scholars interested in a critical approach to race relations we intend to apply the race concept in order to explore the lived experiences of racial minorities resulting from racialization processes (Coram, 2007; Hylton, 2009; Long and McNamee, 2004). By focusing on the lived experiences, it gives room to interrogate race not as a biological fact or an essential component of identity but rather as a historically constituted and culturally dependent social practice (Alcoff, 2006).

Racism is among the outcomes of racialization processes. According to Delgado and Stefancic (2001), dominant societies racialize different minority groups at different times in response to shifting needs and challenges. As popular images and stereotypes of vari-ous minority groups shift over time, so do the meanings of racism. Given the dynamics and the shifting meanings of the term racism, it has become difficult and unrealistic to assemble all forms of racism; from racially motivated hatred acts to the culturally and institutionally ingrained racial practices, into a single definition (see Connolly, 2000; Gullestad, 2000, 2006; Murji, 2007; Vera and Feagin, 2004). In addition, such practices vary between direct and indirect, intentional and unintentional, individual and collective. This has resulted in the emergence of concepts such as new, modern, aversive, enlight-ened, cultural and institutional racism(s), which elucidate the systematic and subtle prac-tices that disadvantage racial minorities (Ansell, 1997; Collins, 2006; Connolly, 2000; Gawronski et al., 2008; Gullestad, 2006; Murji, 2007). The common project for these concepts is to highlight the link and shift from traditional forms of racism, mainly open

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and at the individual level, to the new forms of racism mainly in subtle forms, involving collective practices at the institutional or structural level. In this article we refer to these two forms of racism as individual and institutional racism respectively. Individual racism, mainly at the individual level, involves racial prejudices and discriminatory practices, which can be reduced to individuals’ acts and responsibilities (Kew, 1997; Lien, 1997; Murji, 2007). In sport, racist slurs, and taunts from individuals or groups are the typical examples which can be referred as individual racism. These actions are mainly overt and can be reduced to the individual’s responsibility. In other words, it is possible to identify a racist. Currently, it is also the individual and overt racist acts, most anti-racism policies in sport respond to (Aurstad, 2005; Friberg and Gautun, 2007; IP, 2007–2010; Lunde, 2005).

Institutional racism on the other hand, involves identifying racism without a single racist. The consequences of the institutional racism can be traced at institutional and structural levels in the society. People usually invoke the idea of institutional racism to talk about social systems that systematically work to the detriment of some racial groups, even when no individual agent consciously manipulates the institutions to bring about the racist outcome (Taylor, 2004). Individuals may participate in these practices even without the discrimination purpose. For example, the use of racially stereotypical com-ments by a coach, sport journalist, sport leader, athlete, etc., such as Africans are suitable in sports and positions requiring strength and speed may be unintentional, indirect, and a common well known ‘fact’ thus, collective knowledge. However, depending on the con-text, such statements are racially problematic as it assigns performance meanings to bio-logical human bodies based on race. Treating that as a kind of racism evokes discussions and uneasiness among many people. It’s still a common practice that racist accusations should be followed by identifying a specific individual or an institution as a direct victim or offender. In addition, where no one has the racist intention, the accusations are mis-placed (Taylor, 2004). It is difficult to reduce all racialization practices to specific indi-viduals or institutions. This can be illustrated by how different institutions, such as the media and sport, work in constructing different and unequal athletes’ images based on their racial and ethnic backgrounds. To identify institutional racism in sport requires a systematic analysis of the ways different attitudes and views are produced and reproduced, by individuals through different institutions, and how this contributes in positioning members of different racial groups in different power hierarchies.

As discussed above, talking about racism without a racist brings uneasiness to both the majority and the minority. However, even when a racist/offender is identified, there is still a moral dilemma whether one can be a racist without a racist intention. This brings the major moral and philosophical question as whether racism is a matter of intention or consequences (Gullestad, 2006; Taylor, 2004). The Norwegian academic discussion about racism has mainly debated between the ‘intention’ and the ‘consequences’ in ana-lysing the racialization and culturalization of the racial minorities (Brox, 1991, 1997; Gullestad, 2002, 2006; Lien, 1997; Lunde, 1997; Skirberg, 1993; Vist, 2007). Brox and Lien emphasized that without negative intentions rooted in negative images about subor-dinate racial minorities it is meaningless to call an act ‘racist’. On the other hand, Gullestad (2000, 2006) focused on the consequences of the racialization and/or cultural-ization of racial minorities in understanding racial relations and racism, regardless of an

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actor’s intention or victim’s interpretation. As cautioned by Gullestad (2006), by reducing racism to the intention focus, only a few blatant and extreme acts, usually from a few individuals or groups, can be regarded as racist. In the sport context, only direct abusive and violent acts, such as racist slurs from supporters and players, can be regarded as rac-ism. The subtle forms of racializations of racial minorities which directly or indirectly lead to racial prejudices and discrimination would be left unchallenged. In addition, given that racial prejudices are increasingly becoming prevalent in subtle forms, the decrease of open discriminative actions against racial minorities in sport or society does not necessarily mean that racial prejudices have disappeared. According to Gawronski et al. (2008), this implies that racial prejudices have simply changed their guises, rather than been abandoned.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) We applied Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyse race and racism in Norwegian sport. CRT has emerged as a follow up of classical racialism, which was influenced by biologi-cal racism (Taylor, 2004). In this article, we utilized two CRT tenets. The first tenet is the one which interrogates egalitarian colour-blindness principle. The second one is the whiteness tenet, which poses a critique on the way white, as a race, is normalized and/or unraced.

The reason we found CRT important is that it considers the same issues that conven-tional ethnic studies discussion take up, but places them in broader perspectives that include economy, history, contexts, group and identities interest and even feelings and unconsciousness (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). As scholars interested in CRT, we focus on analysing racialization processes in understanding how race and racism are lived in everyday practices in sport. By using the CRT tenet which challenges colour-blindness policies based on the dominant views of an egalitarian principle, the aim is to render a better understanding which can provide changes and transformation on issues related to race relations, racism and power (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). CRT also tries not only to understand social situations but also to call for change and transformations. We see CRT as a relevant analytical tool as it is increasingly used to challenge traditional domi-nant ideologies, race structures; overt processes and implicit racial coding that are enshrined in the egalitarian assumptions of Western societies (Coram, 2007). By apply-ing CRT in sport, we wish to shed light on issues related to power, hierarchy, controver-sies and history, which privilege some racial groups over the others. By not putting race (just like gender, and other social identities) at the centre of analysis in a society which claims to be multicultural, like Norway, systematically silences the voices and experi-ences of racial minorities in a society which privileges dominant racial majorities (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001; Taylor, 2004). CRT questions the colour-blind or neutral conception of equality, expressed in regulations that insist on equal treatment as being the same for all. CR theorists criticize colour-blind equality as they argue that, such prin-ciples works only on the most blatant forms of discrimination. By using CRT in this article, the aim is to highlight how ‘race neutrality’ approaches can work to create unequal positions between the racial majority and minorities in sport.

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Another important tenet of CRT is to examine whiteness, which is mainly unraced (Collins, 2006; Hylton, 2009; Long and Hylton, 2002; Taylor, 2004). Whiteness con-struction and interactions are seldom centralized in the analysis of race because white-ness is implicitly regarded as the norm. As Hylton (2009) put it, the need to problematize race (blackness/whiteness, majority/minority, Norwegians/ immigrants, etc.) and to apply these concepts to sport, render visibility of white as the dominant group of people in the racialization processes. This accounts for white as a dominant race, the responsi-bility they have in reinforcing or challenging race social relations. For instance, failure of racial minorities to cope with traditional Norwegian sport organizations is seldom regarded as a problem partly rooted in white Norwegian majorities. It is mainly regarded as racial minorities’ failure to integrate into the Norwegian society, including institutions such as sport.

MethodologyPrimarily, the study is based on the in-depth qualitative interviews conducted between summer 2007 and spring 2008. The participants were purposefully sampled based on the nature of the research questions (Creswell, 2007). They were expected to be able to elu-cidate the understanding of the central phenomena of this study, which were their experi-ences regarding race and racism in sport. The selection criteria used included the following: the participant was required to be: 1) a visible racial minority who had at least one black African parent; 2) active in sport at the time of the interview; 3) above 15 years old; and 4) willing to discuss his/her own life and sport experiences associated with race and/or racism. The participants had parents from Africa, Scandinavia and Caribbean nations. One participant had a white father, five had white mothers and the rest had black parents. The athletes represented four team sports and two individual sports. They were active at different performance levels from the district to the international level.

The first author,1 who was the interviewer, utilized her African networks in Oslo to make contact with the first participants. In addition, she took contact with minorities’ organizations such as African Youth in Norway (AYIN), to look for information which could help her to recruit more participants. The researcher came in contact with most of the participants through snowball sampling (Patton, 2002), where the initial participants facilitated the identification of others. To be able to acquire the information from these athletes and their organizations, we applied for permission from the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (Norsk samfunnsvitenskapelig datatjeneste, NSD). This required us to adhere to all the ethical considerations related to the rights of these athletes and their organizations in terms of privacy and confidentiality. Both written and oral infor-mation were provided to the informants before the interviews, stating clearly the purpose of the study and the reasons she/he was sampled for the study. This was done to ensure that, the participants’ rights to be informed and their active role in the study were consid-ered (Creswell, 1998; Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). The study participants were also informed about their rights to decline the interviews or withdraw from the study (Creswell, 2007). A total of nine female and eight male black Norwegian athletes, aged between 16 and 29 years old, were interviewed.

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The researcher utilized an interview guideline (Kvale, 1996; Maykut and Morehouse, 1998) which consisted of five topics. The topics included participants’ general social backgrounds, social networks, sport networks, their experiences concerning race and rac-ism, and their knowledge and awareness about inclusion and anti-racism programs in their sports organizations. The athletes’ interviews were tape recorded following the partici-pant’s consent (Creswell, 1998) and then transcribed to text. With the assistance of a quali-tative data analysis program MAXQDA 2007, the data were categorized through coding for further analysis. The analysis began with very broad and open initial coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) in order to give room for exploration of the data. This was done in order to allow a continuous exploration of the narratives contained in these athletes’ tales. Through constant comparison (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) of the codes and the contexts in which the stories were told we developed thematic patterns from the data (Charmaz, 2006; Kvale, 1996) which some are presented as findings in this article.

Findings and discussionFor the athletes interviewed, sport was not free from racialization and racist practices. Such practices ranged from stereotyped comments, direct racist assaults to subtle and institutional practices, which facilitated racist practices. The findings will be presented and discussed in two major parts. The first part focuses on problematization of the racial stereotypes associated with black athletes’ performance. The second part of the findings will discuss how racism is manifested both overtly and covertly, and its implication from individual to institutional level.

Stereotypes controversyOur findings correspond with earlier literature about the perceptions of blacks’ superior-ity in certain sports and the consequences associated with such perceptions (Coakley, 2007; Fleming, 2001; Harrison, 2001; Hoberman, 1997; James, 2005; Kay, 2003). The majority of the interviewed athletes acknowledged experiencing remarks related to blacks’ athletic superiority, based on the believed biological advantages possessed by black people. These perceptions were common in a few sports, such as football and track and field. As described by these athletes, their performances in those sports were regarded as the result of their racial and/or biological background, thus ‘natural’ and ‘expected’ from them, as stated below:

I remember when I run fast then you get always comments ‘you Africans run pretty fast’. They are minor things and are not negatively meant, but it’s strange! Actually many people think it is positive because Africans are very fast. It’s well known that we are very fast. Eh . . ., we are very strong! . . . I think so. Many people really think is positive. For instance, when the opposite team has many African players, those kinds of thoughts just come in my mind [. . .] I always think that way. I also believe many coaches think the same. (Anette)

Although Anette considered such comments to be strange, she emphasized that they were positive. This argument is also shared by Erling:

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All (blacks), the majorities are either occupied by football or track because we have genes in our bodies which enable us to be good in those sports. We are looked upon that way; we are looked upon as good people. (Erling)

Both Anette and Erling are aware of the racial meanings (Taylor, 2004) assigned to them in relation to sport. For Anette, although with scepticism, she lived up to the myths, while Erling utilized further the positive sentiments associated with an athlete as a good person. The importance to be recognized as a good person through sport has been dis-cussed earlier by different authors (James, 2005; Kay, 2003). According to these authors, sport has long been regarded as a means of self-expression and recognition for black youths which they don’t always get in other spheres of the society such as schools. Erling’s utilization of black ‘genes’ and athleticism combines the positive social associa-tion of athletic excellence and moral ‘goodness’. In this context, the good person image seemed to apply in a broader context than just sport, thus opening for a wider opportunity which allows the black youths to suppress the negative stereotypes connected to their racial minority’s communities in the broader society. The ‘good blacks’ portrayal through sport (especially black men), is important as they are presented as a contradiction to traditional negative stereotypes of deviance and lack of discipline (Hylton, 2009; Kellner, 1996; Wilson, 1997). For these athletes, the insistence of the positive aspect connected to the black ‘natural’ talent in certain sports applied not only in terms of the physical body, excellent, but rather as an important cultural capital used to resist negative stereotypes, thus racism (Hartmann, 2000).

Whereas some athletes found the blacks’ athletic superiority unproblematic, others regarded it to be problematic. Among those were Ragnhild and Jorgen, who regarded such myths to be unrealistic as they were applied to only few sports. In addition they claimed to create more pressure on black athletes as described below:

I used to experience it in athletics and football. Where you are placed, with such comments such as ‘you Africans are fast! . . .’ But in this sport there are no such comments, as there are not many Africans in this sport. (Ragnhild)

Ragnhild was aware that, her racial background influenced the positions she was assigned by her former coach. The allocation of positions in team sports based on the assumption of racial stereotypes about different abilities of white and black (minorities) players, has been a common practice used in sport (Coakley, 2007; Hallinan, 1991; Long and Spracklen, 1996; Maguire, 1991). Black athletes have been placed in positions which required speed and quick reaction, while white players were mainly placed in positions, which were believed to require intelligence and decision-making skills (Coakley, 2007). As observed by Ragnhild, such expectations were only limited to a few sports, where black athletes were regarded to be over-represented such as football and track. Ragnhild, who was for the time being competing in a white dominated sport, didn’t experience the same remarks. Related comments were given by Jorgen about his brother:

My brother tried this sport for the sake of having fun. He is not good in sport at all, but when he tried suddenly he was in newspapers. The newspapers made a good stuff out of that although

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performance-wise, he did nothing . . . May be wrong to use him as an example . . . but I believe when you are black most people think that you are good in this sport. However, there so many black people out there who are not good in this sport. (Jorgen)

For Jorgen, the myth of associating black athletes with high level performance in certain sports was problematic and created uneasiness. For him, the expectations put on his brother worked rather restrictively and created performance pressure, which made his brother unable to participate in sport on his own premises (‘having fun’). This view was partly shared by Anders as expressed below:

African players are supposed to perform absolutely in another level to be considered in the district or national teams. (Anders)

For Anders and Jorgen, the different performance expectations put on black and white play-ers led to unequal treatment for equal performance. They experienced that black athletes had to perform better for their performance to be acknowledged. As shown by these athletes, the assumption that different athletes, based on their racial background, are naturally better at certain tasks and sports than the others can be problematic in different ways. The different perceptions of stereotypes associated with black athletes’ sport performances, can partly be explained by Sugden and Tomlinson’s (2002) analysis, as they pointed out that, the pres-sures and limits of a given domination or subordination are experienced and internalized by individuals and groups in the society. The subordinate groups reinforce or challenge their own subordination in a system that can alienate or absorb them (Hylton, 2009).

As argued by CRT scholars, racialization of black athletes through the stereotypical comments such as the ones mentioned by these participants is problematic in different ways. The taken for granted privileges of the white majority in relation to sport are among the important concerns of CRT where by the analysis of whiteness is put under more scrutiny. Racialization of racial minorities’ performance, can lead to participation patterns where some athletes, although indirectly, are systematically excluded in certain sports and positions. As cautioned by Long and Hylton (2002), racial sport characteris-tics reflect power relations where whiteness is the norm to be measures from, as privi-leged, normalized, deified and race-less. The performance of white players is normalized in terms of not representing their race (Anderson, 2008; McIntosh, 1997). The associa-tion of the study’s participants’ performance with their race in this context can act as a limitation where by the participants are denied a privilege of performing as individual athletes without representing their race (McIntosh, 1997). This puts different perfor-mance pressures on white and black players given that black players are expected to represent their race. The situation of white players not being responsible representatives or role models for their race is, according to McIntosh (1997), a white privilege. In this case, the normalization of a white player’s performance is done through individualiza-tion of their performance, while the performance of black players are represented col-lectively and raced. The representative role expected from black players can create a dilemma in the sense that players’ individuality is reduced to racial and/or ethnic status where they must work for or against the public expectations put upon them.

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Individual and/or institutional racism

Most of the athletes interviewed expressed that they have experienced incidents/treatments which they characterized as racist. Such treatments occurred both overtly and covertly, intentionally or unintentionally, and from individuals to the collective/institutional level. The most common abuses reported from different individuals were verbal racist slurs from athletes or supporters, as indicated by Sigurd and Anders below.

Yes I have experienced several racist comments [. . .] I have to say, its difficult not to experience that during a sport career [. . .] because there are some people who are not so smart. You experience several comments from both adults and children. There have been people who have said to me things like ‘you damn nigger’. (Sigurd)

Similar experiences were related by Anders.

Most of the time it was players from the opposite team who came out with racist slurs. This happens for example when a black player tackled a white player. As the way of showing dissatisfaction, a ‘Norwegian’ (white) player retaliates by using a racially loaded term such as ‘the damn nigger’. The Norwegian player reacts in a racist way! He says something racist. Instead of taking it as personal, they attack the whole race. An idiot is an idiot whether he is a Norwegian or an African. You can’t deny that, there are idiots among Africans but you experience that people react to someone’s racial background instead of reacting to a person. (Anders)

Based on Sigurd’s and Anders’s narratives, although the incidents were described as individual attacks, the confrontational forms and target were broader than a single indi-vidual. The black athlete’s attack on the white player was racialized. This was implied by the white player’s reaction, where he systematically targets the black athlete’s racial background. As Anders stressed, ‘they attack the whole race’. In this context, the black athlete’s rough attack was not considered as a merely un-disciplined action which could be performed by any player regardless of race, but reconfirmation of stereotypes about blacks as ‘lacking discipline’. As Krouwel et al. (2006) pointed out, in some sporting contexts, harassing a nearby opponent if necessary by foul play or verbal insults is regarded as part of the game in order to push the opponent ‘out of the game’. By under-standing the unequal power relations, member of the dominant groups strategically can use race, to push the opponent from minority groups out of the game. Such racially loaded fouls systematically reproduce the existing power relations by maintaining hier-archies and antagonisms between black minorities and white majorities. The fierce sport rivalry in this context is used as a strategy to maintaining hierarchies and antagonisms among individuals and groups of different racial backgrounds (Krouwel et al., 2006). This confirms the unequal racial power relations between white majorities and black minorities, which can be reaffirmed through sport.

In this context, through racialization (Omi and Winant, 2004), the Norwegian athlete as a member of the dominant group, had the power to assign racial meanings to actions

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performed by the black athlete as a member of the subordinate group. Members of racial minorities do not have the same power. As earlier stated by Taylor (2004), racism involves prejudices plus power (PPP). Given the collective power by racial Norwegian majorities, it allows their prejudices toward the members of racial minorities to be opera-tive and not vice versa. Given Anders’s and Sigurd’s explanations, although the racist incidences were performed between the individuals, the intention and consequences seem to have broader and collective/institutional implications.

Given the racist stories pointed out by Sigurd, Anders and other participants, the researcher asked if the participants shared such claims with their leaders. Many partici-pants expressed hesitation and scepticism about sharing racist experiences with their leaders. Anders, Sigurd and Bjorn grounded their scepticism in the following:

It depends, the higher you have reached the easier it become to raise such issues . . . It’s difficult in lower levels such as when you are playing in the third division league . . . It doesn’t help to report after the match that he called me this or that. (Anders)

Yes . . . but not when I was young . . . but things are changing now. Normally, if it happens that the referee is near and witnessed . . . he can write a report and send it to the federation . . . to make a case. (Sigurd)

Bjorn further expressed the lack of Africans or minorities in authority positions to be among the factors which caused such hesitations.

. . . Personally, I think if there had been an African leader it had been easier for me to take-up those things. There are things in which I feel they disregard me and that there is segregation in the team. Because I wouldn’t feel like a minority, if the leader had a minority background. But as it is now (only whites are in leadership positions), I am the minority so if I raise such issues then I will have even more against me. (Bjorn)

Common for these athletes is the feeling of powerlessness and insecurity. These were grounded on their subordinate hierarchical positions as young and/or athletes with minor-ity background against majority adults and/or authorities in sport. As expressed by these athletes, they didn’t report the racist comments they experienced in sport during their younger years. Partly, this indicates the lack of a supportive environment in sport for young racial minorities (especially from adults) whom they could trust and rely on, to share their experiences of racism. As emphasized by Sigurd, even at older ages, he only forwarded racist claims to the sport authorities if there was a person in authority who witnessed it, such as a referee.

The underreporting tendency shown by these athletes partly reflects the unequal power relationship. Given the white majority’s institutional power as a dominant group, sport authorities can implicitly accept or dismiss athletes’ racist claims, especially if they didn’t witness it themselves. The white majority’s norms, supported by the (institutional) power they possess, seem to determine which racism claims, can be taken seriously. As pointed out by Bjorn, if a leader had a racial minority background, then he wouldn’t feel like a minority in the team, demonstrating his racially subordinate position as an athlete

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and member of a racial group which is not reflected in sport leadership. As earlier noticed by McIntosh (1997) about his privilege as a white male athlete in sport, he stated that, he could be fairly sure talking to the person in charge would mean talking to someone of his own race. This privilege is not always possessed by the members or racial minorities, particularly in contemporary Norwegian sport contexts.

Failure to show trust and concern for young racial minorities, especially in matters concerning racism, is a systematic disregard and dismissal of racial prejudices by the white majorities. As earlier noticed by Johnsen (1996) in Norway and Long and McNamee (2004) in England, racist incidences in sport have been neutralized and nor-malized as merely misunderstandings, or as part of the game which are not necessarily harmful. In addition, the retaliation feared by some participants in this article, indicates the white dominant power to shape the racial relations in sport. Denial and/or dismissal of racism claims by an institution such as sport, does not only help to conceal racism but also can assist its nourishment.

The stories provided by these athletes indicated that, racial minorities have limited chances to express their concerns, to racial majorities in sport. The lack of an encourag-ing atmosphere and clear guidelines in sport for racial minorities to raise some of their concerns or problems, indicate that not all individuals or groups are treated equally in sport. Critical race scholars are concerned with egalitarian principles, as they argue that they are grounded in white dominant values. The underreporting of racism as shown in our study might portray sport as a harmonious institution where all racial groups are treated equally. As cautioned by Hylton (2009) and Long (2000), sport should not be taken for granted as a level playing field, where different racial groups are allowed to enjoy the same privileges. The fact that these athletes did not feel confident in reporting racist incidences when a (white) person in authority did not witness it, or was not of their own race, indicates unequal power relations in sport grounded on race. It indicates that racism is acknowledged as a problem as long as it is approved by the members of the dominant groups. Such an atmosphere will seldom encourage racial minorities to report or talk freely about racism and discriminatory experiences they experience in sport, espe-cially at a young age. Such practices challenge the ideology which presents sport as a positive racial force grounded on fair play principles. We recognize the potential sport has to promote equality. Nevertheless, we encourage critical racial analysis in sport in order to examine more closely the racial and cultural patterns involved in different prac-tices and policies in terms of power, knowledge and interests involved (Gardiner and Welch, 2001; Hylton, 2005).

Summary and concluding remarksIn this article we have examined how race and racism are experienced in sport by black Norwegian athletes. The findings correspond to earlier studies which have argued that sport is not free from racial inequalities which are experienced elsewhere in society (Andersson, 2003, 2007; Hallinan et al., 1999; Hartmann, 2000; Hylton, 2009; James, 2005; Krouwel et al., 2006; Lovell, 1991; Lunde, 2006). As presented in our findings, the tendency of peers and adults to characterize blacks as naturally better in certain tasks or sports provided an important influence on the ways in which racial ideology informs

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158 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 45(2)

society and institutions such as sport. Such myths seemed to act as motivation, pressure and/or limitations. Despite the irrationality behind these stereotypes, their consequences become real in how racial minorities meet with the dominant culture in sport (Fleming, 2001). As earlier pointed out by Goldberg (1994, cited in Long and Hylton, 2004) the way that common-sense racialized issues and ideas find their way into sport through broader social forms, gives the notion that ideas and practices are not produced and repro-duced in isolation. Furthermore, we have shown that the racialized comments exchanged between different individuals carried a collective message from a broader society about the performance expectations for different racial groups. By understanding unequal racial power relations, black athletes’ choices to challenge or reinforce such a view can-not function in isolation. As earlier stated by Hartmann (2000) sport is not just a place where racial interests and meanings are either rejected or reinforced, but rather a site where racial formations are constantly and publicly negotiated. Therefore, it is essential to explore how and why certain stereotypes or popular representations have been used to include, exclude and shape the participation of certain groups in certain sports (Lovell, 1991; Vertinsky et al., 1996).

By using CRT we have stressed the importance of taking into account the individual and everyday racialization and racist practices in a broader societal perspective. This is to be able to identify unequal racial power relations in sport which facilitate the occur-rence of racism. By using CRT tenets such as the one which challenges whiteness and contemporary egalitarian principles, we have examined the connection between indi-vidual, collective and institutional practices. This was done in order to show the connec-tion between the daily unchallenged individual practices, and the institutional and structural inequality in sport between racial majorities and racial minorities. The aim is to highlight how racism is normalized through our everyday social practices and institu-tions. By doing so, we wish to show that racism in sport is not always accidental inci-dences performed by only a few white individuals, but a systematic exercising of power which is partly reproduced through sport. In addition, by encouraging critical reflection of whiteness which is mainly taken as a norm, it will allow interrogation of the privilege many white majorities take for granted in sport.

In dealing with racial prejudices in sport, there is a need to shift focus from viewing racism in sport as only limited to the few overt practices which can directly be associated with prejudiced beliefs about racial minorities. Institutionally, racial minorities still occupy marginal positions and roles in sport which might create tensions when it comes to dealing with racism in sport. We are aware that direct and indirect racial discrimina-tory practices in sport are still complicated phenomena to capture. However, by using various and/or alternative analytical approaches, it allows seeing how racial and ethnic relations in sport unfold differently at different times and in different contexts. Although many sport organizations are against racism, their focus has mainly been limited to indi-viduals’ racist actions, while leaving the day-to-day institutional practices which per-petuate racism unchallenged.

Despite the potential sport can have in terms of social integration (Seipel, 2002; Strandbu, 2002; Walseth, 2005) we still caution that sport is organized around social, economic, cultural and political structures that historically have privileged, and continue

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to privilege, dominant groups in society, in this case white Norwegian majorities. As cautioned by Andersson (2008), although Norwegian sport through media has been in the front line in highlighting racial minorities in sport, there are still good reasons to ask if the positive focus of inclusion notions associated with sport has led to structural and cultural reforms within Norwegian sport.

Note

1. The first author is the one who conducted all the interviews. She is black, originally from Tanzania and residing in Norway.

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