Fined WNBA Players Stage Media Blackout
The ladies of the WNBA answered the fine imposed on them for wearing black t-shirts in support of Black Lives Matter and the slain Dallas police officers by staging a post-game boycott on Thursday.
After the New York Liberty faced off against the Indiana Fever, everything appeared to be business as usual until Liberty forward Tina Charles was named the WNBA player of the month and she accepted the award with her team-branded warm ups inside out.
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
When the media entered the Liberty locker room, the team staged a media blackout by informing them they would only be answering questions related to Black Lives Matter and the issues they’ve been protesting.
Via Deadspin:
Charles, Tanisha Wright, and Swin Cash spoke on behalf of the team, and presented a clear-eyed explanation of their actions.
“We feel like America has a problem with the police brutality that’s going on with black lives around here, and we just want to use our voices and use our platform to advocate for that,” said Wright. “Just because someone says ‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter. People put out this imaginary ‘black lives only matter’ whenever people say, ‘Black lives matter.’ What we’re saying is, ‘Black lives matter, too.’ Period.”
“We really would appreciate if people stopped making our support of Black Lives Matter, an issue that is so critical in our society right now, as us not supporting the police,” added Cash. “There’s a lot of women in this room right now, in the WNBA, who have family members who are in law enforcement… People need to understand that it’s not mutually exclusive. You can support both things.”
