People love sports for the fair play but sports media environments offer anything but. Unchecked social ills, as manifested in heightened forms in these spaces, keep minorities, especially Black women, in the shadows, yet feature their ideas, without credit, beneath other people’s bylines.
As much as Black women WNBA players have been erased from media by omission, the situation is more dire for Black women journalists covering the league who, for so long, have provided coverage for low wages, or none at all, because the most well-known outlets judged neither the WNBA nor the women journalists seeking opportunities to cover…
Three things media companies must do right now to ensure inclusive, accurate reporting
Even for a topic as grim as the potential for the coronavirus to kill a professional athlete, the WNBA and its players are left out of the conversation. A report by Will Fleitch in New York Magazine on Friday discussed the matter in reference to the NBA, NFL and MLB and omitted the WNBA, a league also returning action.
Fleitch is not alone. In a NBC Nightly News segment on Saturday, Sam Brock, reporting from Miami on how rising coronavirus cases in Florida could impact the return…
In a landmark deal, players chart a new path for the WNBA with higher salaries, enhanced mental health resources, and other benefits
When basketball star Nneka Ogwumike announced in a November 2018 essay for The Players’ Tribune that the WNBA Players Association would opt out of its contract with the league, she also commanded the WNBA, and society at large, to bet on women. And with today’s monumental news, the WNBA demonstrated that it heard Ogwumike’s call for action loud and clear.
In a landmark move between the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association and the league, a new collective bargaining agreement was reached that invests more into the players, 88% of whom are Black or women of color. …
Tamryn Spruill
is a freelance journalist and author of a forthcoming book on the history of the WNBA. Find complete bio and more at newleafliterary.com and tamrynspruill.com.
