The neoliberal framing of ‘race’ equality initiatives in British sport

Despite decades of policy efforts designed to address racial inequalities in British sport, their impact on disrupting longstanding injustices appears negligible. This critical commentary examines some reasons why such ‘race’ equality initiatives have not prompted substantive change. Rather than a policy ‘failure’, we argue that they may be better understood as ‘succeeding’ in meeting their core purpose – which is to reproduce the neoliberal conditions from which they have emerged. This alternative reading draws on Fraser’s integrated theory of social justice (2000) and Meer’s (2022) conception of the cruel optimism of racial justice to situate ‘race’ equality initiatives within their broader macro-level political, social and economic structures. In doing this, we highlight how such initiatives tend to enact core organising features of neoliberalism that include market-driven solutions to inequality, individualising sources of inequality and prioritising cultural recognition over economic redistribution. We argue that such initiatives can be seen to legitimise and reinforce – rather than challenge and disrupt – structural racial injustices that are necessary components of neoliberal societies. This analysis moves beyond a tendency within sport policy research to prioritise meso-level evaluations of organisational implementation, which often takes the underlying intention and design of policy at ‘face value’. We call for a more critical macro-level examination of the wider political function and ideological underpinnings of sport policy. This alternative analysis can aid a deeper understanding of the contribution that current policy approaches may have in perpetuating, rather than redressing, systemic racial inequalities in British sport.