George Floyd’s Killing Has Everything To Do With Women’s Sports

One week ago today, Derek Chauvin, formerly of the Minneapolis Police Department, used his knee to completely choke the life out of George Floyd—Floyd was unarmed. Chauvin’s fellow officers very complicitly stood by for more than nine minutes watching the scene unfold. The video of Floyd’s murder began to circulate on social media within 24 hours; sparking political and social unrest across the globe as people of all races and backgrounds express their frustration with a judicial system that seems to continually have its knee on necks of its black citizens. 

What does this have to do with women’s sports? Everything.

Dawn Staley, Head Coach of the University of South Carolina’s Women’s Basketball Team, and Natasha Cloud, Guard for the Washington Mystics, both penned pieces in the Players’ Tribune. In their individual pieces each woman shared their pains and frustrations surrounding Floyd’s lynching and the countless other killings of black men, women and children at the hands of the state. That these black women have spoken up shows that Floyd’s death has even touched the sports community. But it’s not just their shared pain that links Floyd’s death to women’s sports. Floyd’s death has everything to do with women’s sports because Floyd, Staley, Cloud and as many black female athletes as you can mention are all subject to the same thankless system of American oppression and racism. 

These two women, and the pain they bear as black women in America, represent the female athletes who, for decades, have brought triumph to America. Black women, as athletes and coaches, are responsible for countless gold medals, trophies, inspiring moments and prize money for America. They grace the cover of American magazines, make American companies millions of dollars and wear American logos all over their bodies. They take center stage in American basketball arenas, tracks, tennis courts, soccer fields and more. White, black, brown, red and yellow American fans applaud them, ask for autographs, buy tickets to see them and buy their products. 

And yet, all of that applause is undercut by a system of white supremacy that since 1619 has enslaved, raped, murdered, disenfranchised, suppressed and oppressed black women. No matter what athletes like Venus and Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Allyson Felix, Lisa Leslie, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Wilma Rudolph, Althea Gibson and others contribute to the fields of play and American society, it’s never been enough to shake off the unmerited hate that America’s government, fans, leagues and companies have perpetuated on and allowed against black women. 

Black women who wanted to participate in sports in America started in segregated schools, gyms, parks and leagues. American institutions publicly denied their humanity, access and equality. With the inception of integration, that overt, state-sponsored denial of equitable treatment stopped, but the racism and inequality continued in the form of silence and acceptance. Institutions sit quietly while its athletes are subjected to racism and accept those who perpetuate the racism within their ranks. As Serena Williams collected her Grand Slams, neither the USTA nor Nike
NKE
did anything to publicly condemn the racist commentary Williams suffered from competitors, the media or sports fans. When Simone Biles won a record-setting number of gold medals, the National Olympic Committee publicly said nothing in defense of their prize winning athlete who was subjected to racist remarks from the Italian Gymnastics Federation. When Don Imus called the Rutgers’ basketball team “nappy headed hos,” the NCAA was silent. 

The institutions (companies, schools and leagues) who make millions of dollars in endorsements, ticket sales and sponsorship from the talent of black women may have allowed black women into their competitive ranks, but their failure to defend or truly support black women is a mere extension of the system that created segregation and reflects the true sentiment of America. 

The system of overt and covert white supremacy that black female athletes traverse is the same system that killed George Floyd. It is the same system that killed Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Amadou Diallo and a litany of black people. It is the same system that built America into a powerful, wealthy nation on the backs of free, abused black labor. Black women athletes continue to work and excel within this system that takes from them and doesn’t even bother to ask whether they are “ok” as they watch their brothers and sisters get murdered without repercussion. That is the connection between George Floyd and women’s sports—they are all connected to the black blood and pain that America has spilled for over 400 years. 

Witnessing the spilling of black blood has been exhausting for Black America. We have voted, protested, spoken and written about the justice and pain ad nauseam. And in the past we’ve largely done it alone. Traditionally, just as sports institutions have been silent through the mistreatment of its black female athletes; those same sports institutions have been silent about the murders that these women witness. They have collected money from black success but been silent about black plight.

This time, however, is different. In the wake of Floyd’s killing, teams, leagues, brands and fellow non-black athletes are speaking up. It is if they are finally seeing the connection between black murders and sports—the connection between black trauma and their own experience. The side of America that has been detached but benefited from black pain seems to be ready to acknowledge and condemn it.

The statements condemning racism and violence against black people are far-reaching. But just as the silence of the sports community has amounted to complicity in the past, action must come in support of the words. Athletes, teams, leagues and brands, if they truly want change for their black female athletes and America as a whole, must be willing to institute policies, provide capital, remove bigots and support anti-racist, diverse causes. That is how they can show their appreciation for the contributions of black athletes—how they can acknowledge and atone for the years of oppression. If they choose not to provide more than lip service, then connection between George Floyd and women’s sports will be nothing but a continuation of injustice.