Combat racism on and off the field
Football, as a mass phenomenon amplified by media, expresses and reflects the social, cultural, and political tensions of our time. Within the framework of the global sporting agenda and current debates surrounding national teams, diversity, and identities, it becomes essential to examine the discourses that normalize discrimination and xenophobia and perpetuate structural racism.
As the political scientist, activist and Coordinator of the CLACSO Working Group on Anti-racism and Afro-descendants in the Global South points outlFederico Pitta in his recent article A national team without black players? (Published in Página/12)The invisibility of Afro-descendant roots and the narratives about "racial homogeneity" in the region are not accidental: they stem from historical processes of national identity construction that systematically obscured the Afro presence. The misinformation and racist biases circulating today on social media and in the press revive these myths and reinforce violence that extends beyond the playing field.
Faced with this scenario, the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) reaffirms its historical commitment: We continue to build an anti-racist CLACSO and combat disinformation about racism.
To transform these realities, research, critical training, and regional collaboration are fundamental tools. Below, we share the training initiatives and research networks that we at CLACSO actively promote on these topics:
Training Proposals
Advanced Diploma in Historical Reparation and Afro-Diasporic Perspectives in the Digital Age
A pedagogical proposal for thinking about Afro-descendant struggles, memory, restorative justice, and new technologies.
👉 Registrations open with discount until August 12th
VI International Postgraduate School: Beyond the International Decade for People of African Descent
An intensive space for debate and assessment of the progress, challenges and outstanding debts with Afro populations in Our America and the Global South.
👉 Applications open until July 26
CLACSO Working Groups (2026-2028)
The production of rigorous and anti-racist knowledge is articulated through our international research networks:
➤ GT Antiracism and Afro-descendants in the Global South: Space dedicated to the comparative study of racial dynamics, resistance, and anti-racist public policies. GT Presentation
➤ GT Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposals: Academic and social articulation network focused on the knowledge, methodologies and political projects of Afro-diasporic emancipation.
Recommended reading:
“Thinking about football beyond the spectacle means opening the game up to its social, economic, political, and cultural underpinnings. In this series, we bring together critical perspectives that examine the World Cup as a stage for disputes, identities, and inequalities, but also as a space for collective imagination. From the Global South, we propose to read sport as a field of meaning, power, and transformation.”
📗anti-racism approaches, tensions and alternatives
Rosa Campoalegre Septien. Paulo Vinícius Baptista da Silva. [Coordinators]
📗Racism and genocide in GuatemalaA long-lasting look
Julieta Rostica. [Author]
📗Racism and Higher Education in Indo-Afro-Latin America. Gabriela Czarny. Cecilia Navia Antezana. Saúl Velasco Cruz. Gisela Salinas Sánchez. [Coordinators]
📗(Anti-)racism and Black Republicanism in Cuba. Yulexis Almeida Junco. José Antonio Figueroa Pérez. Jochen Kemner. [Compilers]
