Chicago Sky guard Sydney Colson started a series called “60 Seconds With Syd” in February, and on the most recent installment, she paid a special tribute to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement. The video is simple, yet gets the message across. Over 80 Black players from the league, including Colson, came together to say that their lives matter, one by one. Names include Candace Parker, Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike, A’ja Wilson, and more.
“It should be VERY clear where a league with 80% black women stands, but I asked these women to send this message with me anyways: BLACK LIVES MATTER!” Colson captioned the video when she posted it to her own Instagram feed. According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) 2019 WNBA Racial and Gender Report Card, 82.7 percent of women in the league are classified as “players of color.” Sixty-seven percent of WNBA players identify as Black, according to the report. See the full footage from Colson and fellow players above.
“We were never trying to convince you, and this was always a statement of fact that Black lives matter,” Colson states in the video before each woman comes on screen to declare that her life matters. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement on June 5, “The WNBA opposes racism in all its forms and will work to bring measurable and meaningful societal change.” The league is donating all proceeds from its Bigger Than Ball apparel to the Equal Justice Initiative. You can find those products on wnbastore.nba.com.
