Racial inequities in sport-structured brain trauma: extending Anderson et al.’s brain trauma as child abuse argument

Anderson et al.’s (2023) framing of sport structured brain trauma as child abuse provides thought-provoking context to ongoing discussions surrounding the role of sport in society today. In our response commentary, we build on the authors’ arguments concerning the ethical impropriety of impact sports to centre questions related to existing inequities within sport cultures. While Anderson et al. rightly highlight that impact sports are untenable for all children considering the established risk of brain injury, we advance their argument to suggest that some children may be particularly vulnerable to suffering the abuse the authors describe, both as now brain injuries and later brain diseases. Specifically, we draw on research that highlights racial disparities in sport practices which suggest that Black and racialized children may experience disproportionate harm. In doing so, we advocate for critical consideration related to the unique challenges experienced across diverse populations. We suggest that regardless of the eventual intervention, researchers and other interested parties must seek to understand how efforts to reduce harm will be felt, accessed, and experienced by children in different circumstances and of distinct and diverse identities.