Ask your­self what mean­ing­ful–not per­for­ma­tive–ac­tion or ac­tions have Eu­ro­pean-dom­i­nat­ed in­ter­na­tion­al sport fed­er­a­tions tak­en to ad­dress their his­to­ry as ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the Transat­lantic slave trade. For years, I have called on Com­mon­wealth Sports to es­tab­lish a repa­ra­tions fund.

​The In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) it­self can be called in­to ques­tion. There are sports lead­ers in the Caribbean who are ei­ther afraid or ashamed, as "sons and daugh­ters of slaves," to speak up. Be­ing Black means stay­ing back and stay­ing silent.

​Racism in glob­al sport will not go away any­time soon for the sim­ple rea­sons of cow­ardice and hypocrisy, or some sport lead­ers just aren’t in­ter­est­ed; they just don't care.

To­mor­row, March 25, is the In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Re­mem­brance of the Vic­tims of Slav­ery and the Transat­lantic Slave Trade.

​Ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed Na­tions, this year’s theme, "Jus­tice in Ac­tion," calls on the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty to con­front this his­to­ry with hon­esty and ac­knowl­edge its en­dur­ing im­pact. Ad­vanc­ing dig­ni­ty re­quires trans­form­ing the sys­tems that per­pet­u­ate dis­crim­i­na­tion and en­sur­ing that the rights of Afro-de­scen­dant com­mu­ni­ties are pro­tect­ed and up­held.

Let that set­tle and sink in.

​The irony of this year's theme is loud: Jus­tice in Ac­tion. Lol (laugh out loud). Re­al­ly? What and whose ver­sion of jus­tice?

​The Transat­lantic trade in en­slaved Africans was one of the gravest crimes in his­to­ry. Mil­lions of men, women, and chil­dren were vi­o­lent­ly tak­en from their homes, de­nied their hu­man­i­ty, and forced to en­dure gen­er­a­tions of ex­ploita­tion. The racist ide­olo­gies that jus­ti­fied this crime be­came em­bed­ded in in­sti­tu­tions and so­ci­eties, shap­ing in­equal­i­ties that con­tin­ue to­day.

​Em­pow­er­ing fu­tures re­quires ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties, strength­en­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion, and sup­port­ing mea­sures that pro­mote re­pair, in­clu­sion, and jus­tice. By trans­lat­ing re­mem­brance in­to ac­tion, we can help build a world where every per­son can live in equal­i­ty, dig­ni­ty, and hope.

​While this In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Re­mem­brance is a time for re­flec­tion, it is al­so a time for ed­u­ca­tion. In 2006, the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, through Res­o­lu­tion 61/19, recog­nised that “the slave trade and slav­ery are among the worst vi­o­la­tions of hu­man rights in the his­to­ry of hu­man­i­ty, bear­ing in mind par­tic­u­lar­ly their scale and du­ra­tion.” It des­ig­nat­ed March 25, 2007, as the 200th an­niver­sary of the abo­li­tion of the trade, and the fol­low­ing year, Res­o­lu­tion 62/122 es­tab­lished March 25 as an an­nu­al day of re­mem­brance of the Vic­tims of Slav­ery and the Transat­lantic Slave Trade, be­gin­ning in 2008. Source: Unit­ed Na­tions.

​Be­hav­iour is dri­ven by cul­ture. Some­one must be con­stant­ly fo­cused on that cul­ture. Any­one who has ever played sports un­der­stands the val­ue of "cul­ture set­ters." Who is the cul­ture set­ter in glob­al sport fight­ing to end racism and racial in­jus­tices?

​Jus­tice in Ac­tion: Con­fronting His­to­ry, Ad­vanc­ing Dig­ni­ty, Em­pow­er­ing Fu­tures. The dou­ble stan­dard is glar­ing. Glob­al sport must op­pose slav­ery and hu­man traf­fick­ing in all its forms and must not tol­er­ate forced labour–nei­ther with­in sport it­self nor with­in its sup­ply chains.

​As George San­tayana said: "Those who can­not re­mem­ber the past are con­demned to re­peat it."

Ed­i­tor’s note: The views ex­pressed in the pre­ced­ing ar­ti­cle are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion in which he is a stake­hold­er.