WNBA players publicly endorsed Democratic candidateRaphael Warnock — the opponent of incumbent Georgia senator and Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler.- Their support proved instrumental in Warnock's victory and the Democrats taking control of the US
Senate . - The internet flooded with praise for the players, but many of the plaudits were directed at one player in particular — Seattle Storm superstar
Sue Bird . - Bird, Liberty star Layshia Clarendon, Wings rookie Satou Sabally, WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike, and agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas talk about the role of race and gender play in keeping the women from getting their due.
WNBA players helped change the course of the American Republic.
In August, the women of the league banded together to oust Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler from her US Senate seat. Earlier that month, players across the league publicly expressed their support for Loeffler's Democratic challenger, Reverend Raphael Warnock, by wearing T-shirts bearing his name before a slate of games.
Continued support from the WNBA players propelled Warnock through Georgia's special jungle election in November. Research suggests that their efforts were pivotal in enabling the Reverend to force January's runoff, which had significant national implications in determining which party would control the US Senate.
When Warnock defeated Loeffler to become the first Black Democratic senator elected in a Southern state, the internet flooded with long-overdue praise for the WNBA players who made the Reverend's victory possible. However, many of the plaudits were directed at one player in particular - Seattle Storm superstar Sue Bird.
That fact was not lost on the 11-time All-Star and all-time WNBA assists leader, who spoke with Insider about her role "as a white player ... trying to amplify the voices of the Black women."
"Was it easier to digest that me, as a white woman, came up with this idea?" Bird asked. "Yeah, probably. I am probably treated differently because I am white."
Who gets the credit?
New York Liberty star Layshia Clarendon spearheaded the league's dedication to the social justice movement and the "Say Her Name" campaign throughout the 2020 season She told Insider that, after a spring that reinforced "the exhaustion of being Black in America," they and WNBA players' union president Nneka Ogwumike asked Bird "to carry this emotional weight" of the efforts to take on Loeffler.
"We just told Sue like, this is great, we're all behind it, but we don't have the time and energy - particularly as Black women - to lead this fight," Clarendon told Insider. "It's too hard for us. It's too draining and difficult and really hurtful."
"We just felt as though this was more of a moment for allyship and for players like Sue to take the reins and really support us," Ogwumike added. "We didn't feel as though we'd necessarily had the energy to be able to take that on by ourselves ... It was one of these hard conversations that people find themselves having today."
But there was another, more disheartening motive for Clarendon, Ogwumike, and their Black counterparts to appoint Bird as unofficial point person of the "Vote Warnock" movement. They assumed that, based on her skin color, Bird would garner more attention for the Reverend's campaign than they could.
"You sometimes have to wait until you get like a white voice, like a Sue or someone to validate it," Clarendon said. "And then it's like, 'Oh, okay, got it.' It's like, why won't you just listen to the Black voices that have been saying this time and time again?"
"White folks in our country will listen to other white people tell the pain and struggle of Black people before actually just listening to Black folks," they added.
This phenomenon was underscored at the end of 2020 when
While accepting the award, Stewart used her platform to clarify the record. She explained that she's committed to "representing the majority of our league, which is Black women."
"Even as a white woman and a white player, I'm going to continue to amplify the message for them and continue to make this world a better place," Stewart said. "And that starts with our league."
Through no fault of Stewart's own, one of the leading publications in the sports world chose to cherry-pick her as their "Activist Ally" when several Black WNBA players - Clarendon, Ogwumike, the Dream's Elizabeth Williams, Natasha Cloud, and Renee Montgomery, to name a few - were perhaps more fitting of the award's description.
"Tone deaf was absolutely the right term to use for SI, especially with the manner in which it was presented," Ogwumike told Insider. "And quite frankly, as a Black woman and as a Black woman athlete, it almost was kind of like, oh, people still don't understand us."
"And it's at the detriment of someone who should be celebrated for what she did on the court," she added.
For Clarendon, it's "no surprise" that the WNBA's Black players are "constantly overlooked," adding, "I mean, it has happened to Black women throughout history every day."
'Sexism and racism come together to create the most challenging possible environment for Black women to find success'
Sexism and racism have a long history of operating hand-in-hand to stifle the achievements of Black women in America. Amelia Earhart is widely remembered as America's sweetheart of the skies, but Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who earned her pilot's license months before Earhardt did, hardly gets comparable recognition. Though the LGBTQ+ rights movement has long been portrayed as one engineered by white, gay men, it was Marsha P. Johnson - a Black transgender woman - who has only recently been credited for her role in orchestrating the Stonewall riots that started it all. And who could forget Neil Armstrong's 1969 "one small step for man?" But who remembers Katherine Johnson, the Black woman whose mathematical prowess powered his "one giant leap for mankind?"
The Black women of the WNBA find themselves in a similar, all-too-familiar position. They've been at the forefront of the social justice movement, but their contributions have regularly been overlooked in favor of white and male faces because, according to Clarendon, they're "fighting so many layers as Black queer women that a lot of folks don't have to face."
"We have to almost anticipate that this is going to happen," Dallas Wings star and WNBA Social Justice Council member Satou Sabally told Insider. "That whatever we did the summer may not get as much recognition as the NBA would or other leagues would get if they were to do the same thing."
"If an NBA player or a major male sports league had gotten behind a candidate, it would just be such national news that the cycle would constantly be playing over and over," Clarendon added. "They say Black people have to be twice as good. Black women have to be 30 times as good just to get the attention that a LeBron [James] or another male athlete would get."
According to Wasserman agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas - who represents a star-studded list of WNBA players including Bird, Ogwumike, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Brittney Griner, Sylvia Fowles, Jewell Loyd, Seimone Augustus, and more - "Black women athletes have represented this intersection" of racism and sexism for as long as they've been competing.
While living "at those intersections of identity" serves as a hindrance for Black women's advancement in all sorts of pursuits, it also "automatically sets you up to be more aware," according to Clarendon.
"I think WNBA players have always recognized the fundamentally political nature of their existence and certainly their success in sport," Colas said. "And so they've always been activists because they're Black women when they wake up."
Still, it may come as a surprise that Black women in the WNBA used their platforms to protest police brutality before some of the bigger names in sport spoke out on the issue. In July of 2016, Maya Moore and her Minnesota Lynx teammates wore T-shirts calling for "Justice & Accountability" to raise awareness of the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
—Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 9, 2016
Two months later, Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the same cause.
"People now will recognize the things that Maya Moore has done," Bird said. "But Maya Moore and her Minnesota teammates, they were protesting police brutality even before Colin Kaepernick. I think a lot of people either don't know it because it didn't get its coverage or just kind of have chosen to forget. I don't know what the reason is. I don't know why that happens."
"And to your point earlier, is it because it's Black women?" she added. "You know, history would say, yeah, that's exactly why."
'You're going to have to do it better for longer to make progress'
"The fact that this still exists doesn't really surprise me," Colas said. "It's an everyday battle of chipping away, celebrating the wins, but knowing that there's still progress to be made."
Throughout her career, Colas has found that representing WNBA athletes comes with the added challenge of overcoming the dual forces of bigotry and misogyny. She finds herself, time and again, having to "explain why these women should matter, why brands should be investing in them, and why they should be paid their value."
But even further, Colas and others affiliated with the league - as well as the women of the WNBA themselves - continue to fight for acknowledgment of the strides they've made in the social justice sphere.
"I still am not naive to the fact that the W is still going to have to like fight and claw and scratch to be acknowledged for this Warnock win," Clarendon said.
"We helped flipped the Senate," Sabally added. "And that is something that a lot more people should talk about."
For some, the players' role in the elections may look like a breakthrough. Clarendon even described feeling "really hopeful that things are changing." But for Colas and the women she represents, complacency is not on the table.
"We take the wins, and we get to point to them, and we continue to build momentum," Colas said. "But it's just one of those things where, you know, you're going to have to do it better for longer to make progress."
It's an exercise in patience for some of the best
"Black women are always in the back end of everything," Sabally said. "And I think with this sport, we're able to uplift exactly this part of society that has been overlooked so many times. And that's why I'm proud to play in the WNBA."
For Sabally, as well as Bird, Clarendon, Ogwumike, and their colleagues, the influence they had in aiding Warnock's win serves as reassurance that they can "be the start of that change."
"I mean, that's all we can hope for, right?" Bird said. "To try to be the change that we want to see. And I think the WNBA represents that, and it goes way beyond me. I happen to be one person in this one story. The WNBA has been doing it. It has been at the forefront of so many issues, and our league is made of Black women, and that's the reality."
"And I hope this league does start to get its flowers," she added. "The women of our league deserve it. They're more than deserving, and, to be honest, it's about time. I think it's past due."
- Read more:
- WNBA players endorsed the opponent of Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler to help force a runoff for Georgia's Senate seat
- WNBA legend Sue Bird says calls for equality with the NBA are not about equal pay
- WNBA players' endorsement of Raphael Warnock pushed the Democratic candidate ahead in Georgia Senate race, research suggests
- LeBron James expressed interest in buying the WNBA's Atlanta Dream after players campaigned against team owner and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler