Black Fugitivity in the Sporting Workplace: The Story of Eniola Aluko

ABSTRACT Being a Black fugitive involves constant movement: to find and cultivate spaces of safety and hope. In this paper, I curate a sporting archive about the UK Black women's elite football player Eniola Aluko to read her as a Black fugitive. I demonstrate how she traversed a racist and anti‐Black sporting workplace—where she was unfairly demonized and policed by White male guardians of the women's game as well as her fellow White women team‐mates—to find spaces of self‐care, solidarity, and career satisfaction. This article provides new knowledge about the sporting workplace relevant to feminist and antiracist scholars in and beyond the U.K. who want to understand how Black women understand, navigate, and transcend discriminatory workplace environments.

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Publication Details

Journal
Gender Work and Organization
Published
2026-04-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.70157
Primary Topic
Sports, Gender, and Society
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Black Fugitivity in the Sporting Workplace: The Story of Eniola Aluko

Aarti Ratna
Gender Work and Organization
Sports, Gender, and Society
article

Black Fugitivity in the Sporting Workplace: The Story of Eniola Aluko

Aarti Ratna
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Being a Black fugitive involves constant movement: to find and cultivate spaces of safety and hope. In this paper, I curate a sporting archive about the UK Black women's elite football player Eniola Aluko to read her as a Black fugitive. I demonstrate how she traversed a racist and anti‐Black sporting workplace—where she was unfairly demonized and policed by White male guardians of the women's game as well as her fellow White women team‐mates—to find spaces of self‐care, solidarity, and career satisfaction. This article provides new knowledge about the sporting workplace relevant to feminist and antiracist scholars in and beyond the U.K. who want to understand how Black women understand, navigate, and transcend discriminatory workplace environments.

Gender Work and Organization
Northumbria University (GB)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Sports, Gender, and Society
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