A'ja Wilson Reflects On Dealing With Racism In Heartfelt Player's Tribune Piece
Monday afternoon former Gamecock great A'ja Wilson's piece in the Player's Tribune was published.
In the article entitled "Dear Black Girls," Wilson reflects on her personal journey growing up in South Carolina and dealing with racism along the way.
She wrote to encourage other black girls who may be struggling on their own journey while also validating their experience.
In the piece she describes how not even her former coach Dawn Staley is immune to racist attacks and describes the fallout that occured after winning the national championship in 2017.
"And I’ve still seen it happen with her. When we won the NCAA championship in 2017, you know what we heard almost immediately?" Wilson wrote. "We’re talking about the first women’s basketball championship in the state of South Carolina. And you know what it was, almost before we could even get the banner up in the rafters?
'Coach Staley doesn’t recruit white players. Why doesn’t she recruit our white girls?'
You had a team of 12 Black girls working their tails off. No, working their asses off. To achieve history. Under a Black female head coach. And it still felt like a significant part of our community didn’t want to celebrate it fully. On social media, it was the worst."
She went on to highlight the disparity in how black girls are prepared to go into the world vs. black boys.
"At the end of the day, Black girls all across the country need to hear the truth," she said. "They need to know what they’re in for. Most of the time, we don’t get “the talk.” The boys get that. They get told about how they’re seen as a threat to police, about how to navigate the world, about how to just survive.
And that’s very necessary. But what do the Black girls get?
(Crickets)."
Wilson is days away from beginning her third season in the WNBA with the Las Vegas Aces.