Former U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler is running out of places to be racist on a professional level. After losing her Senate seat to Raphael Warnock, Loeffler has also sold her share of the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team whose players protested and actively campaigned against her last year.
Last summer, Loeffler wrote a letter to the WNBA commissioner, objecting to the decision to let players wear warmup jerseys bearing phrases like “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name.” That had previously been a violation of the league’s rules and Loeffler wanted to keep it that way, seeing as she—in her own words—“adamantly oppose[s] the Black Lives Matter political movement,” both on and off the court. This was by no means the only time Loeffler criticized the BLM movement, which she has called “anti-Semitic,” “divisive,” and a threat to the “nuclear family.”
Players spoke out publicly against Loeffler and even made the incredible decision to wear shirts reading “Vote Warnock.” This was back in August, before now-Senator Warnock was very widely known. But the players researched him, met with him, and decided he was an infinitely better candidate than their racist team owner.
Loeffler was so terrible that even teams outside of Georgia began wearing the shirts.
You can’t tell us to stick to sports while a sitting senator owns one of our teams! 🙄 It’s one thing to sell a team, it’s another thing to flip a senate senate seat. @RevWarnock is the democratic candidate running for senate in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/PGEWuGZUlf
— Layshia Clarendon (@Layshiac) August 5, 2020
Not only did these players give Warnock a publicity boost and help oust Loeffler from the Senate, but they’ve now also driven her from the WNBA. She and her co-owner (former Coca-Cola CEO Mary Brock) have sold the Dream and even better, one of the women who bought the team has made history in doing so.
The team was bought by a three-member investment group that includes former Dream player Renee Montgomery—now the first former player to serve as an owner and executive in the WNBA.
Montgomery took last season off from playing to focus on social justice work, including fighting voter suppression in Georgia. She explained her decision in an essay published on The Players’ Tribune last June, as protests for Black lives and against police brutality and racism were happening worldwide. She expressed concern (or at least acknowledgment) that this decision could very possibly affect her basketball career, but it was clear that she wouldn’t be happy with any other choice.
All it takes is a single moment, a single choice to create momentum. All you need is a second to change everything. And suddenly, I just find myself standing in this moment.
If I go into the WNBA season, I know I won’t be able to give 100%, and that’s not fair to my coaches and teammates. And I also know that if I did go into the “bubble,” who knows what it’s gonna look like in four months, as far as the movement is concerned?
For me, I just want to make sure that I’m fuelling the movement and being a part of it.
Despite the isolation of that “bubble,” the WNBA got to be a major voice in the conversation around Black Lives Matter and racism in and out of sports. Montgomery got to return to the sport in an incredible, historic new position. And Kelly Loeffler is gone. That’s a win for everyone.
(via The Hill, image: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
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