{"id":218,"date":"2024-05-01T09:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/?p=218"},"modified":"2024-05-07T16:30:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T21:30:15","slug":"may-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2024: Sport matters: Black female athletes: Sistas are doin\u2019 it for themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marcia<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is fascinating to see how women- and in particular the majority Black players of the WNBA- are using their power to collectively advocate for health equity and racial justice. There has been lots of discussion and studies about how greater inclusion of women in medicine resulted in significant culture shift. I wonder how the leadership from Black Women in sport will shift professional sporting culture and equally be part of the work in health care to interrupt all forms of racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Delia<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Never Surrender, the Unapologetic Lives of Black Female Athletes<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to begin by giving a SHOUT OUT to the South Carolina Gamecocks and Head coach Dawn Staley for winning the Women\u2019s National Collegiate Basketball Championship, capping off their undefeated season (38-0)!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport matters.
An important cultural site of interracial competition, cooperation and antagonism, sport has played a profound role in civil rights and social justice struggles in North America and across the globe. For Black folx throughout the diaspora, as a visible source of entertainment and possibility, sport has provided them with opportunities to gain recognition through physical struggle, not just for their athletic achievements, but it has also been a place to pursue their dreams, secure their corporeal integrity, and declare their humanness and citizenship. While Colin Kaepernick has undeniably been a driving force for the current generation of activist athletes, the visibility of his public protest is matched by the invisibility of his Black female counterparts. Change agents in their own right, diverse Black women have always been integral to Black liberation struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrating its 28th year, the WNBA was built out of the labour, fierceness, and love of Black women: 76% of the players and 19% of the owners are Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016 in the wake of the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling members of the Minnesota Lynx held a pregame press conference to talk about police killings. In subsequent games they along with players from other WNBA teams wore plain black T-shirts. Five days later the league fined the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever 5000 dollars and their players 500 dollars ostensibly for violating the league\u2019s uniform policy, a policy that requires players to exclusively wear official league uniforms during and before all games and practices and not alter the uniforms in any way (this fine was more than the 200 the standard uniform violation fine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To give you some context, in 2014 the WNBA initiated an LGBTQQIA+ Pride campaign during Pride month in June, the first professional sports league to do so. The league\u2019s selective consciousness refers to the fact that when WNBA players wore t-shirts with a rainbow heart displaying the words Orlando united, after the Orlando nightclub shooting, players were not penalized. Notably, the National Basketball Association did not fine its members when they wore t-shirts stating, \u201cI can\u2019t breathe,\u201d following Eric Garner\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several days later the league rescinded the fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 the WNBA Social Justice Council was formed. It is an activist committee run by the WNBA and the players union. With support from advisers including Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, they raised awareness about issues of race, voting rights, LGBTQQIA+ advocacy, and gun control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year the league is focusing on women\u2019s health reproductive rights and civic engagement (with a focus on how voting impacts reproductive health within racialized minority communities in the U.S.). They have partnered with Opill which is an over-the-counter daily birth control pill that is available in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone watches women\u2019s sports\u201d
The t-shirt ain\u2019t lying: 18. 9 watched the women\u2019s national basketball final between South Carolina and Iowa, peaking at 24 million (FYI: 14.8 million watched the men\u2019s final).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former WTA superstar Serena Williams and retired track and field icon Allyson Felix have drawn attention to Black maternal health following their life-threatening experiences during childbirth. Initially doctors did not believe Williams whose knowledge of her own body and medical history, namely her previous experiences with blood clots, led to her challenging the skepticism of her doctors, and ultimately saving her own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to U.S. data the maternal mortality rate for Black women is 2.6 times the rate for white women. In May 2023 former U.S. track and field athlete, Torie Bowie died due to complications related to her pregnancy. The autopsy revealed respiratory distress, high blood pressure and eclampsia. Towie\u2019s teammate, Allyson Felix, developed preeclampsia (as did Beyonc\u00e9) during her first pregnancy resulting in an emergency C-section at 32 weeks. All three of the gold medalists on the 4 x 100 metre relay team at the Rio Olympics, three Black women, had serious complications during their pregnancy. Felix\u2019s relay teammate, Tianna Madison disclosed that went she went into labour at 26 weeks, she went to the hospital with her will and healthcare directive. Both she and Felix continue advocating for better Black maternal care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With respect to reproductive health Black women in Canada are three times more likely to have fibroids than white women, are more prone to endometriosis (and less often diagnosed) and are screened less often for cervical cancer. In addition, the lack of accurate data regarding maternal mortality in this country is highly problematic. What we do know is that racism and racial inequality play a part in maternal mortality across North America (see Martis 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World champion gymnast Simone Biles and WTA star player Naomi Osaka are advocates for prioritizing mental health and are working to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to draw attention to diverse Black female athletes\u2019 resistance and activism because their labour, love, and commitment are an important step towards acknowledgement of the complexity and the interconnection of Black liberation struggles. Their experiences and insights provide an opportunity for us to begin to recognize places of common or related oppression and struggle, which could subsequently offer a foundation for coalition work in support of justice and recognition of the value of all <\/em>Black Lives (Cohen 452).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an Olympic year, so more there will be more sport talk coming.
Stay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Resources<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cohen, Cathy J. (1997).  \u201cPunks, bulldaggers and welfare queens: The Radical potential of queer politics?\u201d GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, <\/em>3(4), 437-465.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felix, Allyson. (15 June, 2023). Allyson Felix: Tori Bowie can\u2019t die in vain. Time.com<\/em>. https:\/\/time.com\/6287392\/tori-bowie-allyson-felix-black-maternal-health\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giroday, Gabrielle. (15 November, 2019). Lack of health data hurting Black Canadian women u of t researchers find. U of T News<\/em>. https:\/\/www.utoronto.ca\/news\/lack-health-data-hurting-black-canadian-women-u-t-researchers-find<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martis, Eternity. (4 June 2020). Why Black women fear for their lives in the delivery room. Huffpost.com. <\/em>https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/archive\/ca\/entry\/black-maternal-health-canada_ca_5ed90ae3c5b685164f2eab93<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parris, Amanda. (1 February, 2024). I made a documentary about the Black maternal health crisis. Then I experienced it. CBC<\/em>. https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/documentaries\/i-made-a-documentary-about-the-black-maternal-health-crisis-then-i-experienced-it-1.7101607<\/a>.
(see her documentary Standard of Care).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters. (15 June 2023). Allyson Felix demands better maternity care. Reuters.com.<\/em> https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/athletics\/felix-demands-better-maternity-care-black-women-following-bowies-death-2023-06-15\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

von Stackelberg, Marina. (24 April 2024). Canada\u2019s cancer screening guidelines are out of date. CBC.<\/em> https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/cancer-screening-canada-guidelines-1.7180878<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WNBA. (9 April, 2024). Opill and WNBA team up for ground breaking partnership. WNBA.com<\/em>
https:\/\/www.wnba.com\/news\/opill-and-wnba-team-up-2024.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

n.d. Every breast counts. Women\u2019s College Hospital Healthcare<\/em>. https:\/\/www.womenscollegehospital.ca\/care-programs\/peter-gilgan-centre-for-womens-cancers\/every-breast-counts\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcia It is fascinating to see how women- and in particular the majority Black players of the WNBA- are using their power to collectively advocate for health equity and racial justice. There has been lots of discussion and studies about how greater inclusion of women in medicine resulted in significant culture shift. I wonder how … Continue reading “May 2024: Sport matters: Black female athletes: Sistas are doin\u2019 it for themselves”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,28,30,1],"tags":[19,44,16,10,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}