Colourblindness also shapes sports discourse. For instance, claims that sports are a “meritocracy” (e.g., “the best player wins, regardless of race”) ignore how racialized athletes navigate systemic barriers (e.g., stereotyping, unequal access to training). By erasing these realities, colourblindness reinforces the status quo, positioning racial inequities as “solved” rather than ongoing struggles.

1. Reclaiming Multifaceted Identities: Countering the erasure of Naomi Osaka’s Haitian heritage by centering her Blackness alongside her Japanese identity. This disrupts colorist hierarchies that privilege lighter skin or non-Black identities, challenging media narratives that fragment racial belonging.
2. Narrative Contestation: Reframing Serena Williams’ justified frustration as resistance to systemic bias in sports officiating, rather than caricaturing it as “angry Black woman” tropes. This involves publicly contextualizing her actions within histories of racial and gendered discrimination.
3. Rejecting Apologetic Femininity: Resisting pressures for women of color to perform humility (e.g., Osaka’s repeated apologies). Athletes can assert agency by rejecting stereotypes of Asian women as meek or Black women as “aggressive,” reclaiming emotional expression as valid.
4. Intersectional Solidarity: Building coalitions between Black and Asian women to oppose media narratives that pit them against each other. This counters the “model minority” myth and anti-Blackness, fostering collective resistance to intersecting oppressions.
5. Media Accountability: Advocating for ethical journalism that avoids racialized framing, such as highlighting Osaka’s Black identity or fairly contextualizing Williams’ advocacy. Independent platforms led by women of color can amplify marginalized perspectives.
6. Theoretical Expansion: Pushing cultural studies to better theorize Asian women’s experiences beyond monolithic “Women of Color” categorizations, addressing unique stereotypes (e.g., the “meek Asian woman”) and systemic erasure.

The writers advocate for broadening the definition of “sports media” beyond current sports journalism, which frequently ignores intersectional activism in favor of neoliberal feminist issues like equal pay. They contend that incorporating a range of media viewpoints and sources can help subvert prevailing narratives that minimize women’s activism, especially that of women of color. They promote a more comprehensive, inclusive view of feminism in sports by upending hegemonic masculinity in sports media and altering epistemic frameworks. This strategy seeks to expose underrepresented forms of feminism and question the ways in which the general public’s perception of athlete activism is shaped by the media.