Hockey is being presented with a chance to be a force for social cohesion, but is at risk of driving division

This week, nine hockey clubs wrote to English hockey’s governing body, expressing concern that “a mere 6% of those playing at hockey clubs from ethnic minorities”.

The letter identified two main reasons for the sport’s lack of diversity: “First, hockey has now become an elitist sport and is dominated at the top level in particular by those lucky enough to come through the private school system” and secondly “both overt and casual racism from other players and, more worryingly, coaches and management”. “England Hockey”, the letter went on to say, “has presided over a system that has become systematically biased against those from less privileged backgrounds, as well as ethnic minorities”.

The clubs received a response from the Chief Executive of England Hockey, Nick Pink. I will leave any judgement on whether the response indicated that Mr Pink has an adequate appreciation of the problem — and an adequate plan to address it — to the clubs who wrote to him (and to you, reader, if you want to read his response here). I will confine myself in this article to commenting on a sentence in Pink’s response that I found odd and potentially concerning:

“Our aspiration is for hockey to remain at the forefront of British team sports as a force for good in diversity and inclusion, with regards to race, gender, sexuality, disability and age”.

Despite the original letter clearly stating that hockey has “a class problem”, Hockey England’s response does not mention class or socio-economic background, either in the sentence above or in the rest of the statement.

This is a problem because — as the concerned clubs have shown they understand — members of ethnic minorities are disproportionately found in the ‘lower’ socio-economic groups. Any strategy to make hockey’s ethnic mix more reflective of the English population without recognising that many of the barriers to involvement encountered by people from BAME backgrounds are socio-economic barriers will not succeed. You might as well embark on a weight-loss programme that that doesn’t include ending your habit of eating a chocolate cake every day.

Tackling under-representation of people from BAME backgrounds in a way that recognises the correlation between ethnicity and socio-economic status has the potential to be a positive force for social cohesion, bringing together a wide range of people from ordinary, non-privileged backgrounds, of minority and majority ethnicities, with people from more privileged backgrounds. Such an approach — of shared goals and endeavours — builds understanding between communities and allows individuals to widen their outlooks and aspirations.

An approach that does not recognise the correlation between class and ethnicity, however, tends to exacerbate distrust, providing an opportunity for racists to tell ‘white British’ working-class people that opportunities are only offered to ‘them’.

[Plug: working with organisations to audit their barriers and potential opportunities facing people form ordinary backgrounds at each stage of the participant journey is what I do as a consultant: details here]