Trigger Warning: mentions of police brutality, gun violence.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, players on the Washington Mystics, of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), entered the game wearing white t-shirts with seven painted bullet holes on the back, even detailed with dripping blood. On the front, each player had a different letter painted in a large font. Together, the letters spelled Jacob Blake.
Three days prior to this media-grabbing gesture, Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Fortunately, he lived, but was paralyzed from the waist down after police shot him seven times in the back, in front of his young children.
The Mystics’ decision to wear shirts in honor of a victim of police brutality is not uncommon amongst athletes in 2020. Ever since sports have returned following the shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many, if not most, leagues, teams, and athletes have addressed the other epidemic spreading across the United States: the mass murder of people of color committed by the police.
The WNBA is often overlooked in its efforts, both in terms of basketball, and their work towards a more equitable world. In the face of inevitable social revolution in the United States, I believe the players and coaches of the WNBA and the league at large deserve our full attention and support in their social justice initiatives. Black women, a demographic that comprises two-thirds of the WNBA, often bear the brunt of institutional racism. Because of this, they should be voices at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement, along with the eventual societal reconstruction of the United States.
I obviously am slightly trepidatious about making claims about who or which groups should have prominent voices in social justice movements, because as a white woman this is absolutely not my place at all. I am just an ally to and a supporter of this movement, and I have no right to say who deserves to be listened to. I do firmly believe, though, that the WNBA has a unique voice in the sports world, and should thus be amplified and spread as such.
During the 2018 season, the WNBA unveiled a new campaign called Take a Seat, Take a Stand. Throughout the season, for every ticket purchased, fans chose an organization to which the WNBA would donate $5. These organizations emphasized empowering women and young girls, and included big-name non-profits such as Planned Parenthood and Bright Pink. The WNBA also provided women and young girls in these organizations with tickets to games. As a dedicated sports fan, and especially one of basketball, I barely read, saw, or heard about this season-long campaign, which is not surprising or uncommon to followers of the WNBA.
Although slightly outdated, a 2010 study of gender in televised sports found that women’s sports received only 1.6 percent of airtime on major sports news networks such as ESPN. This number had decreased significantly from the previous data reported in 2004, and has probably decreased since. So already, it is obvious that women’s sports such as the WNBA are statistically underrepresented and underreported in sports news and media.
This disappointing pattern still holds in 2020. On July 6, as major sports leagues geared up to start playing again, the WNBA announced that its season will be dedicated to social justice. The Justice Movement is committed to “honor[ing] the Black Lives Matter movement and the #SayHerName campaign” (WNBA). The WNBA also created a Social Justice Council, which, in conjunction with the league and the Player’s Association (WNBPA), is continuing to “be a driving force of necessary and continuing conversations about race, voting rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and gun control amongst other important societal issues.” Some of the leaders of the Council include top-name players in the league, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson, along with Alicia Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, and Carolyn DeWitt, the CEO of Rock the Vote.
There are numerous more initiatives being taken by members of the WNBA. Many players are involved in a LeBron James-spearheaded voter mobilization campaign called More Than A Vote, which features athletes from across leagues and is aimed at increasing access to polling places and hiring young and healthy poll workers. Additionally, Maya Moore, a four-time WNBA champion and former first pick overall of the Minnesota Lynx, declined to play in the 2020 season to work towards criminal justice reform. In fact, Moore recently married a man she got released from prison after he was wrongfully convicted 23 years ago. There are so many great examples of those in the WNBA taking charge to change the world for the better. These initiatives are more often than not overlooked, which is incredibly upsetting because of the amount of good that more attention could do for the WNBA, and the world.
If the WNBA had as much attention and credibility, let alone as much money, as the National Basketball Association (NBA), their male counterpart, or any other male sports league, they could be a real revolutionary force. They could be viewed as the true icons they deserve to be and share their ideas and voices with the people who need to hear them most, often the people doing the ignoring.
When I searched the phrase “social justice council” in the search bar on ESPN’s website, there were zero articles which matched my search. ESPN had written zero articles about the WNBA’s commitment to helping the world, a cause to which they dedicated their entire 2020 season. ESPN had written zero articles about Take a Seat, Take a Stand, the WNBA’s campaign from two years ago. If the most major sports news network isn’t going to write about the WNBA’s biggest campaigns, you can bet they aren’t writing about the work of individual players such as Maya Moore.
It is imperative that we give the WNBA more attention, because their influence on the mass social movement in the United States could be truly special and revolutionary. As critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw said, “we simply do not have the luxury of building social movements that are not intersectional.” We can no longer ignore the WNBA, whose players and coaches’ strong voices require our full attention and support.