Recently the Utah women’s basketball team suffered racist insults, which is far from being the first and last, raising a debate on how to address this issue. Utah women’s basketball coach Lynne Roberts said, in a press conference according to the Associated Press, her team experienced a series of hate crimes after arriving at its first NCAA Tournament hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Roberts detailed what happened after their loss against Gonzaga in the second round. 

Roberts told the Associated Press that there were several instances of racial hate crimes toward their team and how shocked they were. 

“In our world, in athletics and university settings, it’s shocking,” Roberts said in the AP article. “There’s so much diversity on a college campus, so you’re just not exposed to that often.” 

“In this very challenging situation, our primary focus is on doing the best we can to support our student-athletes and staff, and that is where we must focus our time and energy.” Utah’s senior associate athletics director, Paul Kirk said. 

Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said at a news conference, according to the AP, a truck drove up to the players and began using racist language. After a few minutes, the same driver returned, with others revving their engines, and yelled at the players again. 

At home, SUNY Oswego sports teams are also no stranger to such incidents. Oswego State basketball coach Jason Leone said his team has already been racially-abused in a game on the road. 

“It was a hostile fan environment,” Leone said.

Leone said his team faced problems accessing the court due to fan interference. In those moments, young adults started racially-abusing the Lakers. Leone also said the police handled the situation properly and controlled it. He also said he never expected a situation like that to happen. 

Christopher Mack, an Oswego State professor specializing in modern European intellectual history and the history of sports, said this issue is cultural and needs to be discussed in society, not just in sports. That way this issue can be solved is through law. 

Mack also said the internet has had a significant impact on this issue, with people attacking players such as Eddie Nketiah, who was racially insulted for performing poorly in the 2021 Euros. 

The most prominent, currently-ongoing incident is Vinícius Jr.’s fight against racist fans in Spain. The athlete has been the target of insults on the internet and in stadiums, which is another example that racism in sports does not just happen in the US. 

Two of the most impactful events with Vinícius were when they hung an inflatable doll with a shirt personalized with his name and number on a bridge in Madrid, and when an entire Valencia stadium was seen referring to the player with racist gestures towards him during the match on May 21, 2023. 

Since those acts, Vinícius has become one of the most influential people in the Back Lives Matter movement, making Nike commercials, celebrating goals with a BLM sign and even talking openly about the insults he has been receiving and how this topic should be talked about more.

One ongoing debate is what organizations and institutions should do to educate people. To explain to them that racist chants and racial insults are not appropriate anywhere, whether in sports or everyday life. Vinícius said that the Spanish league “now belongs to racists.” While the president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, says that Spain is not a racist country but is concerned about the cases. Tebas also told ESPN, “We are having a great campaign against racism. But a lot of progress has been made in these years.” 

One example in the US where outside pressure made a difference is the sports franchises with Native American-related names, mascots or logos being pressured to stop using these stereotypes and caricatures, like the National Football League’s Washington team, and the Major League Baseball’s Cleveland team, which both changed their monikers.

Leone says he thinks it needs to be educational and “needs to grow as a community and society.” He also said he tries to talk about these topics with his athletes as a coach. 

“What can we do as a team and program to create an inclusive environment?” Leone said. 

Another crucial aspect is the mental aspect and how those players can be mentally affected. 

“If you know sports, you know mentality is a crucial part,” Leone said. “Forget sports. Even outside of sports, it affects your day.”

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