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HEN STEWIE posted on Twitter
about wanting the WNBA to paint
Black Lives Matter on the baselines
this season, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. A
lot of players wanted to dedicate the season to
Breonna Taylor and BLM, but there’s more weight
to it when your best player—the No. 1 pick out
of UConn in 2016, the MVP two years later and
certainly the future of the league—is pushing for
it. For her not only to understand that but also be
willing to take that on made a huge difference.
She realizes she has an opportunity to be more
than what she is on the court—and also, as a whiteplayer in a predominantly Black league, to be an
ally, or accomplice. Not a lot of white athletes
have done that in the past: said their cause is my
cause, and I’m as willing to fight for it as they are.
Racism is not a Black person’s problem. This
is a problem that white people created, and that
we’re going to have to face ourselves. You can’t
put the burden of progress and change on the
oppressed, solely. They’re already doing every-
thing they can to make the world better. So that’s
why it matters when you see white athletes like
Stewie standing up and saying, Hey, we need to
do better. We need to push this narrative. And weJULIO AGUIL AR/GET T Y IMAGESSTEWIE REALIZES THAT AS A WHITE
PLAYER SHE HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO
BE AN ALLY, OR ACCOMPLICE.
TAKEN BY
STORM
Stewart led
Seattle to
its second
championship
in three years.