Kaepernick Will Be Remembered—Brunson, Augustus, Whalen, Moore Won’t & That’s a Problem
On July 9, 2016, in black t-shirts that read, “Change Starts with Us: Justice & Accountability,” four players from the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx — Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, and Lindsay Whalen — hosted a pre-game press conference that Brunson opened by stating:
“First, I want to thank you guys for coming out and listening to what we have to say. In the wake of the tragedies that have continued to plague our society, we have decided it’s important to take a stand and raise our voices. Racial profiling is a problem. Senseless violence is a problem. The divide is way too big between our communities and those who have vowed to protect and serve us.”
Brunson then shared a personal testimony: when she was a child, police officers drew their weapons and threatened her and several friends. Highlighting the many detrimental impacts of racial trauma on black childhood, she wrapped up her statement by saying, “Tonight, we will be wearing shirts to honor and mourn the lives of precious American citizens and to plead for change from all of us.”
Next on the mic was Maya Moore who told the audience that the team’s shirts were designed to highlight “a long-term problem of racial profiling and unjust violence against blacks.” Preemptively addressing the likely and predictable conflations made between racial justice advocacy and violence against police officers, she quickly asserted that she and her teammates “in no way” condoned “ violence against the men and women who serve.”
Moore acknowledged the Dallas police officers who were killed in a sniper attack in July 2016 and lauded the Dallas Police Department for implementing de-escalation trainings for their officers. Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus did not speak at the press conference, but flanked the team’s spokeswomen with a silent solidarity that was palpable and powerful. Moore concluded by calling for humility, compassion, empathy, justice, and accountability from law enforcement officials.
That timely conference and coordinated effort of four women — three black, one white — from the WNBA’s top ranked team set off a wave of events that reverberated throughout the league: several Minneapolis police officers refused to provide security for Lynx games, a string of similar and related protests followed, players were fined, players protested those fines, and the fines were rescinded.
Tom Ziller and Mike Prada of SB Nation lay out a useful and comprehensive timeline here.
What is worth noting is that the Lynx press conference was held in July 2016, a month before Colin Kaepernick, posterchild of modern-day sports activism, started, sitting and then, kneeling during the NFL’s national anthem. And while Kaepernick and subsequent protestors from the NFL and NBA have made national headlines using their visibility and platforms to address police brutality and state-sanctioned killing of black people, entire WNBA teams such as the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, Washington Wizards, Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks have continued to stage protests — the most recent in response to the events unfolding in Charlottesville — with little to no fanfare.
Not only are the women of the WNBA forerunners in the recent surge of sports activism, but they have also worked collaboratively, joining efforts across teams and brands to form coordinated responses that contrast the equally important but more individualistic and disjointed efforts of their male counterparts in the NBA and NFL.
So why is Kaepernick’s name and image splashed all over the media and centered in the most heated debates in the world of sports and politics while the names of Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, and Lindsay Whalen are not?
Because sexism.
Because racism.
Because the WNBA is comprised of all women and 70% of them are black.
While some white players, such as Lindsay Whalen, have been supportive of league protests and can be commended for their allyship, it’s been the black women of the WNBA who have led the charge, organized the efforts, and assumed the risks of being most vocal and visible.
This is nothing new.
It fits within the larger historical framework of black women providing the necessary leadership, catalytic fire, and labor to not only serve our own communities, but protect and support vulnerable and marginalized communities all over the world…while having our contributions minimized, disregarded, or erased altogether.
Too often the successes of black women leaders are co-opted. A movement that was spearheaded by the women of the WNBA will now go down in history as a movement created by the men of the NFL.
And while it’s true that this type of erasure is produced by systems of oppression and is not necessarily the fault of any single individual, male players in the NFL and NBA could offer much in the way of allyship and true solidarity by taking every opportunity to publicly acknowledge their predecessors in the WNBA. To truly espouse and stand in the values of social justice, the men of the NFL and NBA have to be just as committed to gender justice as they are racial justice.
So what is our charge?
The first is recognizing the dangers of revisionist histories that amplify, sanitize, and exaggerate the narratives and accomplishments of the privileged by diminishing, disregarding, and erasing the narratives and achievements of the marginalized.
We must also understand that privilege is intersectional and that while Kaepernick and other black male players in the NFL and NBA experience racial oppression, they occupy spaces of male and class privilege that women in the WNBA do not. Once we are willing to face these realities, wade through the complexities of intersectionality, and have the tough conversations they engender, we become ready to…do.
Dr. Kimberle’ Crenshaw, law professor, founder of the African-American Policy Forum and creator of the term “intersectionality”, created the #SayHerName hashtag and movement to raise awareness about the many black women and girls brutalized and killed through state-sanctioned violence.
Her model — one that employs education, research, advocacy, and organizing to shape and shift practices and policies affecting black women and girls — might ultimately be one that we need to employ when it comes to recognizing the lives and contributions of black women and girls across the board.
For those of us who are deeply invested in creating a more just, inclusive, and intersectional world, perhaps we need to be more vocal about the WNBA’s contribution any time we engage in conversations about sports activism.
Perhaps we need to put pressure on the sports executives and media franchises who refuse to give the WNBA funding, support, coverage, marketing, and promotion it deserves.
Perhaps we should be appalled that the average WNBA salary is $72,000.
Perhaps we need to be vigilant about not only making sure the names Brunson, Whalen, Moore, and Augustus go down in history the way the name Kaepernick does…but that they do so in their rightful place…before his.
