Keep Racial Quotas Out of Sports

Sports are more vital than we realize. Let's not destroy them with ideology.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

For years, pollsters have been asking Americans what they think about social justice politics, and no matter how they phrase the questions, the answers keep coming back the same: No thank you! Supermajorities of the public think that “political correctness has gone too far”, agree that "We should aim for equality of opportunities, not equality of outcomes", and don’t want race or gender factored into college admissions. 62 percent of Americans say they have political opinions they’re afraid to share. But these widely-held attitudes don’t seem to affect much of anything in the culture, a disconnect correlated with the decline of institutional trust. If John or Jane Q. Public strongly disapproves of the admission policy at Yale, or the activist stenography masquerading as journalism at NPR, or Penguin Random House re-writing parts of classic books to be more politically correct, nobody really cares. There’s nothing the average person can do beyond impotently grumble about it.

There are, however, some areas in which the public holds enormous sway, and one of them is sports. It recently came to light that the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), rejected the addition of an expansion organization that would have mandated roster spots for black and indigenous players alongside hiring quotas for women and racial minorities in management. While the hockey press has tiptoed on eggshells around this development, rank-and-file hockey fans have had no such reservations in voicing their outrage at the fact that this was ever even a possibility. In many other areas of society, “equity” campaigns are grudgingly tolerated by a public who are powerless to stop them. Sports are different. In this domain, the lumpen masses reign supreme. Their interest, passion, patronage, and viewership are the lifeblood of the industry — and they demand meritocracy. The moment elite competitive sports become anything less than merit-based, they cease to exist, both as financially viable enterprises and also as cultural institutions that serve vital and underappreciated functions in society. 

This GTHL expansion bid was spearheaded by Akim Aliu, a Nigerian-born former hockey player whose 13-year professional minor league career included seven NHL games. In June of 2020, Aliu seized on the energy of the moment by co-founding the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), essentially a hockey diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) organization whose mission statement is “To eradicate systemic racism and intolerance in hockey.” The HDA aims to achieve this through projects that include “social justice initiatives” and “anti-racism education.” In April 2021, Aliu launched a venture to bring a new organization, the Toronto Dream, to the GTHL, the largest minor hockey organization in the world, and part of the pipeline that feeds prospects to the NHL. As part of his proposal, the Dream would operate as many as 32 teams, guaranteeing up to five roster spots for “visible minorities” per team, as well as gender and racial quotas on the coaching and managerial side. The pitch was entertained by the GTHL board, who spun their wheels on the idea for several years, until eventually reaching an impasse.

There are practical and logistical reasons why the GTHL was resistant to any expansion efforts, such as declining player registrations and financial concerns, but the “equity” dimension was unquestionably a factor, even if most involved are too cagey to say it out loud. To compromise on the principle of merit and the integrity of the game, however noble the intention behind it, is an existential threat to any league foolish enough to consider it, and to sports in general. Massive sea changes in the culture of sports almost always begin at the grassroots and work their way up. Youth sports are the canary in the coal mine.

The social justice movement’s increasingly frequent incursions into sports are a product both of their cultural reach but also of their ignorance. Every time some culture war controversy arises in athletics, and the opportunity for “dismantling” this or “problematizing” that presents itself, the phantom demographic of woke sports fans scuttles out of the digital woodwork. In reality, of course, you can go lifetimes without ever meeting these mythical creatures in the wild. The fans who actually engage with sports versus the “fans” who materialize when there’s some social justicey points to be scored are two entirely different populations with not one jot of overlap. Go to any locker room, stadium, tailgate gathering, or practice, and you’re about as likely to encounter critical consciousness as you are crystal healings and seances. This isn’t The Conscience of a Jock; it’s Revenge of the Woke Nerds. The radical activist class may be able to cobble together enough athletes to fill some sports-related DEI organizations, but the wider community that provides the foundation and support for these endeavors is one that understands athletics about as much as conspiracy theorists understand Occam’s razor. What do they care if the imposition of their repellent sensibilities destroys sports? They don’t play or watch them.

To be clear, the problem here is not that sports are becoming politicized; that ship sailed a long time ago, and the left had nothing to do with it. Sports culture is, as one would expect, a male-heavy testosterone-drenched, right-leaning space — and they have happily politicized sports to suit their own biases. There is no logical connection between a sporting event and flag worship, military honor guards, troop salutes, and jet flyovers. There’s a reason why we don’t see these right-wing rituals at the beginning of quiz shows, pop concerts, and stage plays. They make no more sense at a football game than they do at the opera, it’s just that the politics of the respective audiences are different, and nobody ever recognizes the injection of their politics as politicization. If football games replaced national anthems with land acknowledgements, that would be politicization, but not troop salutes, no that’s just being a good red-blooded patriot. Horseshit. It’s all politics. That’s all it’s ever been. But there’s a difference between dressing the presentation of sports in political pomp and compromising the integrity of the sport itself with political ideology.

I have made no secret of my problems with meritocracy. My critique delineates between two different applications: meritocracy at the societal level and meritocracy at the level of an organization, company, or league. While I argue that the former is a logically incoherent utopian folly, the latter is not only a worthy goal, but an indispensable one. To call for competitive sports to abandon meritocracy is to call for competitive sports to be abolished. The very notions of competition and sportsmanship depend upon the concept of merit. Remove that from sports and you’re left with professional wrestling, except without the nod and the wink. 

Sports is a consumer industry, and the public both expects and demands a product where the best athletes earn their spots and win through fair competition. Take that away, and the audiences will vanish and leagues will collapse. It may be argued that no competition can ever be truly fair, and yet, it’s unclear how far any sane social justice advocate should want to push this argument in sports, given that the groups they deem underprivileged disproportionately dominate elite sports across North America. Yes, ice hockey is the lone outlier among major sports, partly due to culture and geography, but also due to financial barriers. Ice hockey is expensive to play. It requires the use of an ice rink as well as hundreds of dollars of equipment, pushing it out of reach for many poor people of all backgrounds.

This is not to say there is no bias in sports, or racism in society. Of course there is. The accusations of bigotry and calls for “diversity” only ever seem to run in one direction, however. No one is pushing to get more white players into the NBA, NFL, or MLS in the name of diversity. It is assumed — correctly — that the reason why white players make up only 17 percent of the NBA is because of culture and merit. In sports where the inverse is the case, by contrast, it is supposed that the demographic distribution is the result of the majority group somehow stealing their success and locking out minorities. You can call that a “right-wing talking point” if it comforts you, but understand that doing so is not a refutation.

We should expand the equality of opportunity in every area of society. We should remove every discriminatory barrier that may exist, fire anyone found guilty of racial bias, and have programs for low-income kids to afford equipment and have access to sports they might not otherwise be able to play. We shouldn’t be doling out roster spots by skin color. At some point, we simply must accept culture and merit for what they are and let the chips fall where they may. Just as we do with every other sport.

Athletics, especially at the highest levels, serve a vital role in society. They provide a healthy outlet for unhealthy urges, and a communal space where people of all persuasions and walks of life can bond and forget their differences for a while. Sports are a place where aggression, violence, hyper-competitiveness, and tribalism can be exorcized from the national psyche. This is especially crucial for men, whose pent-up antisocial energies require outlets. People need a place to blow off steam. Sports are more than entertainment — they are the most popular and arguably most effective form of therapy society has. Destroy them with ideology and we remove part of our collective immune system.

The GTHL were right to stonewall this asinine “Dream” proposal. That they dithered for two years before finally doing so indicates a shift in the political tides. Social justice politics rose to cultural prominence in 2013, but it was the rise of right-wing populism in the form of Donald Trump and Brexit in 2015 and the murder of George Floyd in 2020 that put it on steroids. In 2021, the white-collar world was still too scared of this mob to do anything but nod along in the face of activist demands. Now, institutions are beginning to stand up to far-left overreach. Popular backlashes are beginning to cause backpedaling. Observers are beginning to talk about “peak wokeness”, the notion that the fever has broken and this phenomenon is now on the decline. Such claims should be taken with a grain of salt. This wouldn’t be the first post-awokening liberal mirage we’ve seen, but the sense that people have finally had enough is hard to deny. Liberals appear to have located their spinal cords, and not a moment too soon.

See also: “We Need Safe Spaces — From Politics”

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