How does an entire league come to share a sense of urgency around issues from Black Lives Matter to Planned Parenthood? It could be that women’s sports itself remains an act of protest
An unarmed black man is killed by a cop in the Twin Cities. Sometime thereafter, professional basketball is played. Before one game, the reigning league champions take the court for warmups in T-shirts that read ‘Change Starts with Us’. Before two others, a quartet of former league MVPs across three teams lead similar rallies clad in ‘Black Lives Matter’ tees; when those three teams and their players draw fines for violating the league’s dress code, two of those MVPs agree to hold their team’s post-game news conferences jointly and tell the media: “We’re only talking about Black Lives Matter”. Across the league, players post pictures of themselves in protest shirts on their social media feeds with messages underneath crying out for justice and reform. By the end of the month, the fines are rescinded.
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