If you’ve attended any of our recent West Coast Classic games, you may have noticed some of our women’s and men’s players wearing t-shirts stating ‘Black Lives Matter’ before and after the games.
Why have the players been wearing those shirts?
What conversation were they hoping to start?
That’s what we’re going to talk about here today.
When the death of George Floyd triggered BLM protests all over the world it brought with it a renewed global focus on racial equality. In Australia, the protests sought to shine a light on institutional racism, racism in Australia, and Aboriginal deaths in custody.
The protests prompted people and organisations to ask:
How can we help make change?
This is the conversation our players want to be part of and the conversation we’re helping them continue today.
Perth Redbacks stands strongly against racism
The Perth Redbacks’ core values are around family, community, respect, transparency and equity. Via these values, we as a club have always stood strongly against racism.
For members of the Perth Redbacks family who wish to do even more; to engage more actively with the conversation started by our SBL players, we encourage you to do so via Racism. It Stops With Me.
Racism. It Stops with Me is a Basketball Australia-endorsed national campaign that provides tools and resources to help people and organisations learn about racism and stand against it by acting for positive change.
How can we help make meaningful change?
A great place to start is to learn about being a good ally.
A good ally to people who experience racism is someone who actively recognises and addresses racial inequality around them – whether it’s at school or in their workplace, in their community or online, or among family and friends.
Being an ally is not about ‘saving’ people who are living with racism – it’s about being aware of inequality, calling it out where it exists, and above all listening to people who experience it, and elevating their voices.
Where to start
Read more here about how you can be a good ally to people from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds.
See here for guidance when you find yourself in a situation where you’d like to actively call out racism, but you’re not sure how.
And finally, see here for more about Racism. It Stops With Me. The website has excellent resources and information for people who wish to:
- learn about racism,
- respond to racism,
- be a good ally and
- act for change.
