“Say Her Name”: Activism and Racial Justice

This chapter traces the journey of WNBA players becoming political leaders, demanding that the WNBA confront racial issues. Though the WNBA had attempted to portray itself through a “colour-blind” framing, this changed in 2016 when players began visibly and actively fighting for racial justice, fighting the league’s reluctance in the process. WNBA players involvement in racial justice efforts have only grown, particularly during the 2020 Covid-19 affected season, when WNBA players finally began to receive some credit for their activist work and their support for Black Lives Matter. I argue that it is possible that this activist work offers a new future for the WNBA, where its success is not solely dependent on traditional factors like revenue and attendance, but how the players are affecting society at large, which in turn has already helped improve those traditional factors. Furthermore, this collective activism is unique to sporting activism, which is often reliant on singular, recognisable (often male) athletes. Unlike the athletes of previous, failed women’s sporting leagues, such as the WPS, which had ambivalent relationships to feminism, WNBA players are drawing on the ideas of an intersectional feminism that incorporates political action and pushes for explicit benefits for its female, mostly Black workforce.