The Bigotry Problem in this Sport
Let's have a talk about how, and why, bigotry in this sport makes zero sense and the easy, yet persistent, steps to stomp it out.
“Apartheid actually started off as a good idea in South Africa.”
“I am just so tired of the gay people’s rainbow flag colors [LGBTQ Pride Flag] being shoved down people’s throats.” (when talking about the gym’s colored stripes for social development in the kids class which is not anything to do with LGBTQIA+)
“I appreciate other people’s cultures, I don’t mind if that’s what they think. I just don’t see why they need to come here [a Western nation founded through colonialism].”
Folks, we have a bigotry issue in the jiu jitsu community. I know, I know, shocker. Really big shocker. I wish those quotes were random examples I made up on the spot but, unfortunately, these are comments I’ve personally heard thankfully from only one specific black belt who is, also thankfully, not a coach. When talking about jiu jitsu, there really is no other way of putting it than there is a longstanding issue with bigotry of all kinds existing. Be it sexism, racism, religion-based bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, and so on.
This sport, which has seen its spread across the world become more and more multicultural and multinational, simultaneously seems to invite some of the wildest bigots you will meet. Which makes very little sense since, well…let’s look at jiu jitsu in an objective and historically:
Originally codified by a Japanese guy in the late 1800s.
Was taught to a Scottish immigrant family in Brazil in the early 1900s.
The sport was then exported to the United States, featured heavily in the first UFC which also saw multiple cultures, ethnicities, and ways of life displayed.
Currently practiced on all six inhabited continents (idk maybe people in Antartica are doing it to pass the time).
Note from Carl: There was actually a guy running BJJ club at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
So, I hope you can see why I think it is genuinely stupid to consistently see bigotry on display by those who are, ostensibly, meant to be seen as “leaders” within the sport. And no, this is not just limited to social media influencers, high level athletes, or coaches. It applies to anyone who takes on a leadership role within any aspect of the sport, including being a black belt.
Today, we’re gonna talk about it because I’m sick of seeing it. I just wanna wear my cotton pajamas and throw or strangle people and have a good time with whoever shows up without having to hear why “(Insert Marginalized Group) are actually ruining society.”
Bigotry, A Very Stupid Thing
Look, I’m not going to sit here and explain how or why bigotry is bad. We all, as a collective society of apes living on this planet have agreed at a social, political, and cognitive level that bigotry is bad. It’s why we have laws that prohibit bigotry in place. On top of that, it’s an inherently stupid concept.
We know the focus of bigotry is to aim unwarranted hatred and animosity towards whatever group the person sees as “bad” or “unacceptable” based off a narrow and subjective world view. Typically we can see this in the form of race-based bigotry, but it does extend to other non-racially based group membership (eg. religion-based bigotry, gender-identity based bigotry, etc.).
Let’s first start with the concept of “race” as a means to differentiate between groups of people originated in medieval Europe and was then later used to justify further differentiating of outgroups. More notably, it is a product of the 15th century’s Iberian Reconquista where the alleged “impurity of blood” of non-Christians served as a means to justify expelling not only the Muslims but Jews as well, or at the very least convert them.
This in turn influenced how Christopher Columbus and his crew of Spanish bandits perceived and viewed the indigenous peoples of the Americas that they encountered. And again this applied to African people as debate came up on whether you could classify the non-Christians as actual people. If you’re already going “Jesus christ, that’s fucking disgusting” then congrats. You are probably not as on board with bigotry as some other folks around our community of jiu jitsu nerds.
Anyway, this would, as anyone who took a history class that actually was honest, help pave the way for the subsequent centuries of people, mostly white, finding rationale to exclude anyone who did not fit a specifically molded idea of what is an acceptable member of society.
And in practice, this simply will never end as it will essentially end up in a No True Scotsman scenario where everyone fails the purity tests because well…purity tests are dumb. If we base our societal standards on religious grounds, you kick out incredibly contributions made by the religious minorities. The same is said for literally any other form of bigotry aimed at cutting off sections of a society’s demographic make up.
There is, frankly, so much more to go into but for the time being I would highly recommend reading Lentin & Bargallie’s (2024) Key Concepts and Definitions for Building Racial Literacy to serve as a bit of a companion and to also help understand the many many forms of racism and ways they are expressed and applied.
The (Long) History of Bigotry in Jiu Jitsu
To save time we are going to start with everyone’s favorite globetrotting Japanese judoka, Mitsuyo Maeda. Sent out by both the Japanese government, and also Jigoro Kano himself, to promote Japan’s new entrance into the global society in the early 1900s, Maeda took with him not only the techniques of Kano but the social assumptions of a Japan that was deeply hierarchical and class-conscious. Throughout his travels through the United States, Europe, then to Cuba before ultimately arriving in Brazil, Maeda helped seed what would become jiu jitsu in the sense we discuss it today.
While explicit references to racial bigotry are not regularly present in the accounts from his travels, Maeda’s demonstrations nonetheless took place in social environments that were highly defined by rigid views of racial superiority, nationalism, and cultural competition. Martial arts challenges in this context were also used to not only provide entertainment, but double as assertions of cultural and ethnic dominance. These early cross-cultural encounters, which were simultaneously occurring with other ethnic groups in various sports such as black boxers competing in the USA, helped lay the foundation for later racialization. In particular for jiu jitsu this would become embedded in the social landscape of Brazil.
Following Maeda’s stint in Brazil teaching, among others, Carlos Gracie jiu jitsu developed within the Brazilian society that was stratified along racial and economic lines. Remember, the Gracies were a fairly affluent family at the time. Modern research into these early days shows that as Kano’s jiu jitsu began to be molded into “Gracie (aka Brazilian) jiu jitsu”, it was situated, implicitly, within the racial hierarchy of Brazil at the time. One that positioned “Brazilian jiu jitsu” as a “white” martial art especially through the explicit marketing of the Gracie family during their challenge matches against capoiera and judo practitioners in Brazil.
Although “Brazilian jiu jitsu” was promoted as egalitarian, its development within the Gracie’s academy reflected Brazil’s pervasive, yet unspoken, anti-Black and color-based social divisions. In more recent research and analysis of this early era of the sport, it has been noted that major schools in Brazil teaching “Brazilian jiu jitsu” intentionally, or even unintentionally, reinforced whitness as a marker of legitimacy and superiority within the sport despite simultaneously claiming that everyone is equal on the mats.
By the end of the 20th century and the explosion of the UFC, which again served as a means for the Gracie family to tout their superiority over others, “Brazilian jiu jitsu” had become a globalized sport. However, underlying issues of racial invisibility, structural, and systemic inequality persisted. In the 2020s, researchers have noted that many practitioners still describe the sport as one that is “democratic” (meaning it is open and equally accessible to all people) and racially neutral. Such sentiment exists even in settings where non-white athletes predominate yet still encounter subtle or systemic marginalization. This tension still remains.
Building Inclusive Settings
As mentioned, people within the sport really like to say, “On the mats, everyone is equal.” This is a beautifully worded idea on the surface. However, as both contemporary and historical research shows, this is not always reflected in real life. Jiu‑jitsu grew within societies with their own hierarchies, and some of those unspoken dynamics followed the art into its modern form. This is also not including the already existing bigotry that existed in nations and countries that the sport was later introduced to (eg. the USA). So when a high‑profile athlete or coach or even a local member of your gym posts online stuff that can be interpreted as racist it helps serve to remind us that the community has a long way to go to correct this disparity. So how can this be corrected? Well good news, it works the exact same way all other forms of stomping out bigotry work.
Call It Out
One of the biggest obstacles to addressing bigotry in jiu-jitsu is silence. In places like the US, UK, and Brazil, racism is often described as “invisible” precisely because people don’t talk about it openly. This is despite the reality that it clearly shapes social life beyond just the context of sports. In jiu-jitsu circles, this same quiet avoidance lets harmful behavior slide by unchallenged.
Coaches and gym owners can change this by simply acknowledging what research has already confirmed, that racism, colorism, and bias exists in our community. And when protests or political moments trigger openly racist commentary from well-known practitioners, the community shouldn’t quietly look away. It should call it out for what it is and allow people to identify those who are engaged in bigotry. A culture of honesty is the first step toward a culture of safety.
And we want our coaches, athletes, and participants in the sport to be honest people, right?
Set Clear and Public Standards
Recent scandals in the jiu‑jitsu world (even when not directly about bigotry) show what happens when hierarchies in gyms/academies go unchecked. Simply put that mindset of having such a strict hierarchical system allows for abuse to flourish and students feeling powerless to prevent being abused. In many cases, especially those that do not make much of a splash in the community, people just quietly leave the sport. It is only in rare instances that you may hear more about the situation and there being a wider discussion surrounding it. See: Andre Galvao’s accusations of grooming but you may not know much about any local instructors in your area doing the same.
In this day and age, an academy needs a system that is more than “trust the instructor” as a practice of standards. It needs at minimum:
A written code of conduct
Anti‑discrimination policies
A confidential reporting system
Consequences that apply even to black belts and leaders
All of which are things I spoke about in my previous piece. that can be implemented already. I even break down what the IBJJF, the leading governing body for the sport, could do to help. While I specifically talked about abuse by coaches/instructors in that piece, it can still apply to issues warranting punishment due to abuse caused by bigotry.
This breaks the “hero worship” mentality practitioners which I, again, have talked about previously.
More Voices Need to be at the Table
It’s also important to note that, based off existing research, “Brazilian jiu‑jitsu” was often positioned as a “white” practice within Brazil’s racialized social structure.
One of the most powerful ways to push back is to diversify leadership both within your local setting and within the upper echelons of the sport:
Promote and encourage the advancement of individuals from underrepresented and historically excluded groups into leadership roles within the IBJJF (and local federations). This includes athletese who identify as female, identify LGBTQIA+, those from lower-income communities, those who are indigenous, and other marginalized groups within our Amerocentric/Eurocentric societies.
Offer reduced rates or even, if possible, scholarships for underrepresented students from your community. Something Guardian Gym has done a fantastic job of for example.
Amplify the experiences of people who’ve faced discrimination. Make their experiences known, and clearly outline how and why this should not be tolerated. We’ve already seen practitioners leave academies after leaders made racist comments, showing people will vote with their feet when given the chance.
These are, again, all things that are readily and somewhat easily available to local gym networks, federations, and even the IBJFF and similar multinational organizations. We see this in our sister sport of judo as well. So it is possible to do, and yet those in the sport who have positions of power have not done so yet.
Remember, representation isn’t purely symbolic. It’s structural change from within.
Make Education Part of the Culture
Most students can tell you when to invert or how to finish a bow‑and‑arrow choke, but very few can explain the contextual social history that shaped the sport. At best we get a highly glorified revision of history that puts the Gracie family as the main characters when, in reality, they were a small part.
By offering opportunities to share relevant articles and encouraging healthy discussions, gyms help practitioners understand why bigotry sometimes surfaces and, somewhat more importantly, how to recognize it and address it before it grows into something unwieldy.
Build Safer Spaces
Not all harm is “bigotry,” but bigotry thrives in the same environments that allow other misconduct to go unchallenged. The numerous examples recently within the sport highlight how easy it is for students to be silenced or dismissed when power dynamics are abused.
However, this is again not difficult to prevent happening. Measures can include:
Not allowing people to be pressured into rolling with someone they don’t want to.
Normalizing “no thanks” as a complete answer and leaving it there.
Clearly discouraging sexualized, bigoted, or -phobic comments and boundary-pushing behavior. Even if its argued to “just be in good fun.”
Designating trusted, trained points of contact for reporting concerns.
The Power of the Community Both On and Off the Mats
Sometimes the most meaningful accountability comes not from gym owners, but from the community itself. Online discussion platforms (Reddit, Threads, etc.) have become places where members of the jiu jitsu community have called out racism, shared experiences, and even distanced themselves from previously admired instructors.
This is good, and it is important to maintain. It signals that more than just the victim of bigoted comments do not condone nor do they support it.
Collective action is often what forces real change and not through the benevolence of just one person who happens to be in charge.
One More Thing…
Saying, “don’t politicize the sport” or “don’t take it so seriously” or anything similar to anyone who is calling out bigotry is not being neutral. You are actively allowing bigotry to continue, and are punishing the person who does not want any bigotry present.
Telling a bigot to shut up or fuck off is not undue and unwarranted hatred. It’s saying you’re not OK with racist, sexist, (insert word)-phobic behavior.
Something you’re entirely entitled to call out, and are highly encouraged to do.