Zainab Bilal on Racism in Sport
This guest blog was written by Zainab Bilal a volunteer at Women on Wheels, a community cycling charity, and discusses racism in sport.
Human beings share 99.9% of their DNA, leaving only 0.1% which gives rise to the physical variations we see within our species. Within this 0.1% a tiny portion of genes are responsible for the colour of our skin, what may seem as an insignificant difference in our genetic makeup is the basis for centuries of racism. Setting aside my own race, ethnicity etc…, as a human being I have never been able to understand why a difference in the colour of an individual’s skin determines their worth and the challenges they will go on to face in their life.
Some of the Women on Wheels team with MSP Kaukab Stewart
My mother will call me pessimistic, but I understand it to be a fact, that racism will continue to exist until the end of time. People from ethnic minority backgrounds will always be discriminated against regardless of the paths they choose in their lives. I understand many people will agree with her, but I see myself as having more of a realistic mind-set. Recently, however, I have been challenged to think differently.
In light of the ‘Changing the Boundaries’ report, an organisation by the name of ‘Running out Racism’, organised a demonstration against racism in cricket outside the Scottish parliament. Myself and several others attended as representatives from Women on Wheels. When I say I attended, I really mean that I was forced to attend by my mother, she all but tied me up and tossed me in the boot of her car.
It was a rainy day in Edinburgh and the idea of hanging around outside the parliament was not how I wanted to spend the day. Don’t get me wrong, eradicating racism from sports is essential but did I believe this was going to be achieved by a demonstration and a few speeches? No. I thought that the real power lay with those in Government and as elected representatives it was their responsibility to challenge and eradicate institutional racism.
However, when we arrived at the Scottish Parliament, I was pleasantly surprised by the diverse crowd gathered for the demonstration. Scattered amongst them were also several members of the Scottish parliament who had come forward to offer the Government’s thoughts on the results of the report. Standing among the demonstrators was Majid Haq himself, one of the two brave individuals who spoke out against the injustices they faced and kick-started the investigation on racism in Cricket Scotland.
Majid Haq was a leading left-handed batsman and bowler in Scotland’s cricket team until he and his team-mate, Qasim Sheikh, spoke up over their mistreatment by Cricket Scotland because of the colour of their skin. Majid Haq wrote a twitter post emphasising the difficulties faced by minority ethnic individuals within cricket. As a result, he was forced to leave the 2015 World cup and ordered by Cricket Scotland to remove his tweet. Rather than stay silent, Majid and Qasim decided to speak up about this injustice and spread awareness of racism in sport. Consequently, the ‘Changing the Boundaries’ report was carried out and discovered 448 counts of institutional racism by Cricked Scotland. However, racial discrimination exists in every sport and we need more role-models like Majid and Qasim to speak out.
“In part it was about gathering in great numbers to demand change from those in power, but it’s also about supporting others who have faced difficulty”
The general public and MSPs were horrified by the results of the report and this led to the demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament. Seeing the diverse gathering of demonstrators and MSPs, I began to understand the purpose of the demonstration. In part it was about gathering in great numbers to demand change from those in power, but it’s also about supporting others who have faced difficulty; like Majid and Qasim. The fight against racism cannot be left only to the minority ethnic community, we also need allies from the white community to show people who have faced racism that they are not alone and give them the strength to continue the fight against discrimination.
The speeches were kicked off and included Aamer Anwar (famous lawyer who spoke out against institutional racism in the police force) who represented Majid and Qasim and shared the difficulties that both players faced as a result of institutional racism and emphasised the importance of exposing discrimination within sports. Following this, Anas Sarwar MSP and Hamza Yusuf MSP both discussed the importance of supporting minority ethnic individuals in their fight against racism and bringing those responsible for discrimination to account (although neither stayed for the entirety of the debate). I will admit that at this point I was beginning to enjoy myself and understood the true impact of what was happening, seeing people from all walks of life coming together to challenge institutional racism was refreshing and left me with a greater sense of community. Hearing the speeches definitely set my heart racing and made me hopeful that things could finally begin to improve for the minority ethnic community. Paul Reddish from ‘Running out Racism’ also spoke about the report and he discussed the importance of taking action against racism and acknowledging that it is still a very real problem, rather than being afraid of its existence.
This sparked my attention as thus far, the speeches had been thought provoking but all contained the same message; that racism is awful and should be eradicated. We already know this I thought to myself, the majority of people already understand that racism is disgusting. This was the first time I had heard of any action being taken against it.
“we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable”
After the speeches the majority of demonstrators had tickets for the debate inside the Parliament which was taking place as a result of Kaukab Stewart MSP (Glasgow Kelvin) putting down a member’s motion following the ‘Changing the boundaries’ report. Kaukab delivered the opening statement discussing the shocking findings of the report and emphasising that we need ‘to get comfortable with being uncomfortable’, we can no longer brush issues like this under the carpet. It may make for difficult conversation but for individuals like Majid, Qasim and others who have experienced racism first hand, shying away from this conversation is no longer acceptable. Removal of individuals who make an organisation institutionally racist is essential. Imagine how demoralising it must be for individuals who have had the courage to bring forward complaints over how they have been treated, only to be shut down by superiors who have no care for equality.
Statements were then given from various MSPs but I must admit after Kaukab’s speech I realised that once again, the same message was being given: racism is bad, the findings of the report were shocking and we really need to do something about this. I almost laughed in the middle of the parliament, the MSPs were shocked! Really? I wasn’t in the least bit shocked that an organisation like Cricket Scotland was institutionally racist and that their players of colour had been discriminated against. You would be hard-pressed to find an organisation that was not racist at some level. I thought everyone knew this, so why were these results so shocking. I began to realise that the people who find reports like this shocking are those that have never really been discriminated against or made to feel lesser because of the way they look. It felt like no solid plan had been put forward; pretty speeches functioning as soundbites work well in front of the camera but the time to take action is now.
As a member of the ethnic minority community, I will not be satisfied until there are serious consequences in place for institutionally racist organisations and their leading members. The general public can rally and protest as much as they like but until the people in power, the people that we have elected take action, nothing is going to change for us. If fighting institutional racism is not given priority then the Majids and Qasims of the future will be forced to remain silent. They will know that speaking out against the injustices they have faced will be fruitless.
In the end, the ‘Changing the Boundaries’ report has been successful in exposing Cricket Scotland and proving that racism has not disappeared. I hope that Majid and Qasim obtained some level of justice. However, Majid never played cricket for Scotland again, his career was shattered and this can never be undone. We protest, we rally for our future generations, we hold those in power to account and ensure that our children do not suffer because of the colour of their skin.