I've been thinking about this for a while and coming to the conclusion that whatever the ISU is doing to expand access and increase the diversity of both skaters and officials...doesn't, shall we say, appear to be having a ton of impact as yet. What are some additional strategies that you think might help given the situation as it stands right now?
One thing I thought of was applying quotas, particularly for officials. Quotas are a strategy known to work in improving diversity of participation and representation in many areas, including business and politics. What if the ISU implemented a quota requirement that at least 50% of tech panel members and judges at all major events (basically, Grand Prix events on up) must be drawn from non-traditional skating countries, or must be under the age of 40, or must be of colour? How would that impact the patterns we tend to see of bias, unofficial bloc judging and reputation-based calling/judging? This could be backed up with financial support to national federations that actively work at recruiting and retaining skaters from low SES backgrounds, skaters and officials of colour, new officials from outside the sport, etc..
Another thing was opening mainstream competitions to same-sex dance and pairs teams, and developing new element options of equivalent value to allow for variations based on partners' upper/lower body strength combinations etc. This would enable more partnerships from more countries to form and open up additional possibilities in terms of elements and choreography. Imagine a dance program where the lead and the follow had the option of switching roles between elements in the way same-sex dancesport couples sometimes do, or a pairs program in which each partner could be both a thrower/lifter and a throwee/liftee at different points, and where lead/follow/thrower/lifter/throwee/liftee roles were explicitly delinked from the gender of the skaters...
Another was creating, and financially supporting, a category of 'skaters/officials without federations' to enable people from countries where it's not financially or environmentally sustainable to build an Olympic-sized rink that's available all year round to compete under their preferred flag if they want to. This would open a route for people from much smaller countries, people with unclear citizenship such as the children of refugees, and people from ethnicities not stereotypically associated with skating to access resources and training, and potentially even advance to Olympic level following the model of the Refugee Olympic Team for stateless athletes.
Any other ideas spring to your mind?
Without even reading your entire post yet, I have to say that I am pessimistic generally regarding actual genuine willingness by entrenched powers-that-be to enact meaningful change that would empower true diversity in figure skating. But I'm probably older than you and therefore I've seen a lot. As time passes, it's fascinating how much remains the same in terms of biased attitudes, which can be subtle, casual, sometimes unconscious or unwitting, but nevertheless, entrenched. Which means it's very difficult to change the status quo. Progress will always be slow. But kudos to you for broaching a brainstorming discussion. Real change happens from bottom up and top down, or it doesn't truly happen. Chiefly, attitudes are what NEED to change.
A lot of good things in terms of diversity are happening incrementally in various fields, particularly in entertainment. Lin Manuel Miranda's brilliant
Hamilton has contributed tremendously to changing thinking about diverse casting. And now, what Shonda Rhimes (and her Shondaland Productions) are doing with
Bridgerton, and formerly with the very successful,
Grey's Anatomy,
Scandal, and
How to Get Away With Murder, has been instrumental in shifting attitudes and furthering diverse change. I think figure skating has a long way to go, in part because there is a lot of denial by people in skating and by some fans that they actually have biased attitudes. In other words, a lot of people are overly defensive and more reactionary and/or afraid of being called or pointed out as harboring racist attitudes, than they are of acknowledging the need to examine their attitudes and to change their thinking and their perspectives.
On the hopeful side, I am glad that diverse skaters have organized, to at the very least, begin speaking out more openly. In doing so, they are raising awareness and reaching diverse youngsters, who then begin to see the possibilities of someone like themselves being able to pursue a career in skating, against all odds. OTOH, there's the casually biased folk like Dave Lease who makes snide remarks about the newly organized FSDIA. I'll never forget one random TSL episode during which Lease made a clueless gaffe remark that Savchenko and her former partner, Robin Szolkowy (being
similar to Massot!), also skated for Germany without having any original affiliation with Germany. Duh! Lease did say that, but why? Dumb? Or just the biased assumption that Robin being melanated couldn't possibly be a native of Germany? In fact, Robin was born in Germany of a German mother and from what I've heard, an African father.
There's a melanated skater from Austria too, whose name escapes me. He's skated in shows, and he competed some years ago in Audrey Weisiger's Young Artist's Showcase.
I'm hopeful, as I said, about the FSDIA, and the collaborative work they are doing to, at the very least, come together to share, to speak out, and to raise awareness. Climbing a mountain always requires taking one small fearless step at a time, and staying determined and focused with eyes firmly on the prize, despite all the impossible obstacles and pitfalls that abound. I am enjoying this
Conversations in Color series of episodes, 'Don't Touch Our Black Boy Joy':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOhkzxUt-l4 Pt 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gphq7RdX9LE Pt 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acHbCi5_D4k Pt 3
I'd never heard of any of Asher's and Acacia's guests in the above episodes! They probably didn't progress past lower levels in the competitive ranks in the U.S. Apparently, all three are or were involved in show skating, as well as holding down a variety of off-ice jobs/ careers. Joey Millet said that he has been a competitor and is now a coach.
Previous episodes of the interview show,
Conversations in Color, were posted in the Elladj Balde thread. The first & second episodes, 'Skating While Black,' included Vanessa James, Elladj Balde, and Mae Berenice Meite.
Here is the third episode of the 'Skating While Black,' conversation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4N3JIZgphw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QII3mhSQrpA 'Skating While Black,' Pt 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ZCh8xyVOw 'Skating While Black,' Pt 2
Progress is always slow, but together with everyone getting involved and being committed to change, good things can happen.
ETA:
Regarding quotas, I don't think that's the road to go down. Opportunities and awareness and changing attitudes has to happen first. Plus, the sport of figure skating is tough for everybody, just tougher for melanated athletes due to ingrained bias. Getting into the nuts and bolts of fixing the competitive structure of the sport altogether should go hand-in-hand with opening up opportunities for everyone who has talent and the desire to compete. Plus grassroots programs that are inclusive of skaters from all backgrounds are extremely important. And then, workshops to raise awareness in order to help change casually biased attitudes which often lead to judges automatically holding back scores for melanated competitors. That's a harder thing to circumvent, just as the politics involved in judging is very hard to eliminate.
