Dawn Staley didn’t come to USC just to win, she says — protests over racism show why
Dawn Staley doesn’t consider herself a confrontational person. Throughout her playing days at the University of Virginia, she remembers watching ESPN more than getting involved in protests and social activism.
But over the past several years, the South Carolina women’s basketball coach has become increasingly outspoken on issues of racial justice. And as that topic has come to the forefront of the national conversation over the last few months, Staley’s voice, and her frustrations, have gotten louder.
It all culminated as players in the WNBA and NBA decided to not play games in protest after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin in an incident that was captured on video and spread across social media.
Staley, tweeting in support of the players, saw responses that upset her — and felt the reason why she came to South Carolina more than 10 years ago become clear, she told reporters on Friday.
“Everything that I do is led by my heart. My heart led me to the University of South Carolina,” Staley said. “I don’t know why, but I think as I continue to live in this community, I see why. I mean, I’m on the Zoom call partly because I put out a tweet. But then the other part is, I’m probably the only Black representative that you could call on, one of two in our whole athletics department, to talk about these things, because I’m closer to the situation than anybody else. So my purpose was more than coming down here and winning national championships. And I didn’t know what that was until it just unveiled itself.”
As for the boycotts themselves, Staley said she believed they were “great” and an appropriate response to the events of the world. And when asked whether she thought her players would ever sit out a game to send a similar message, she left the door open to the possibility.
“I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if they decided that, you know, this is something that in which they want to flex,” Staley said. “And then if we get to that point, we get to that point and we’ll have to have discussions, but hopefully we’ll have some discussions prior to that, prior to it getting into that point. And if it ever got to that point, what can I do? I’m not gonna stand in their way.”
The question of skipping games, however, wasn’t Staley’s focus Friday. Instead, she focused on systemic racism and Blake, who was shot just outside his car in front of his three young sons, his family has said.
“People are losing their lives. People are getting shot in the back in front of their kids,” Staley said. “I’m thinking about the three boys, his sons. What do we say to them? You know, this is a generational cycle of, of ... it’s racism.”
In the aftermath of Blake’s shooting, which has sparked nationwide protests, Staley said she didn’t initially speak about it with her team for a specific reason.
“Sometimes I purposely don’t spew my view on my team and them. I want them to be able to digest what’s happening. I want them to feel whatever it is that they’re feeling. And I didn’t purposely for the last few days, I didn’t say anything, because I wanted them to say something to me,” Staley said.
“But then ... I sat and thought last night like, you know, I’m here to help them, to help them navigate. And maybe they’re not comfortable in sharing how they’re feeling, or maybe they just don’t want to disrupt the flow of what we have going on. But then I just reached out to them last night and I’m like, I’m hesitant to bring these things up, because I’m so afraid of them taking on my views of how I see things. And I don’t want them to do that, because I want them to be individuals.”
Once she sent a message in the team’s group chat, the replies came pouring in, Staley said. They have since scheduled a Zoom call to talk more, though Staley is still wary of her own voice dominating the conversation.
“I don’t want them to take on my views because my views are my views, and I’ve lived for 50 years,” Staley said. “They’ve lived for less than half of that and they’re gonna have to feel some of these things for themselves and navigate how they feel, and we just have to give them a space to navigate and feel good about sharing how they’re feeling and putting their feelings out verbally.”
To that end, Staley said she planned to tap into community resources for her players to give them a variety of perspectives.
At the same time, she has no plans to hold her tongue. Over the past several months, Staley has spoken up about the need for greater diversity in USC’s athletics department, joined the push to remove Strom Thurmond’s name from South Carolina’s campus buildings and been named to the SEC’s newly formed council on racial equity and social justice.
Looking back on her quiet days back at Virginia, Staley said it wasn’t that she was uncomfortable voicing her opinions. But things have changed and now, she feels compelled to say more.
“My heart is speaking to me a lot more these days because things that are happening and I’m a coach of 11 young ladies, nine of them are black. Two of them are white. We have to coexist,” Staley said.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:59 PM.
