Dream’s Montgomery pens letter to Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Black Lives Matter
As the WNBA community continues to promote Black Lives Matter, players have faced opposition from a prominent figure within the league.
On Tuesday, Atlanta Dream co-owner and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler caused a stir after writing a letter to commissioner Cathy Engelbert objecting to the league’s plans to dedicate the 2020 season to social justice.
Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, wrote that supporting a “particular political agenda undermines the potential of the sport and sends a message of exclusion.”
“The truth is we need less — not more politics in sports,” Loeffler wrote, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever, sports has the power to be a unifying antidote. And now more than ever, we should be united in our goal to remove politics from sports.”
Loeffler’s comments received backlash from several players, including Dream guard Renee Montgomery, who is sitting out the season to focus on social justice initiatives.
Montgomery, a UConn alum, wrote a letter of her own to Loeffler on Friday, denouncing Loeffler’s stance on the movement.
“Your comments hurt deeply because it was a veiled “All Lives Matter” response,” Montgomery wrote in the letter, which was published on Twitter.
“It’s not that you’re tone deaf to the cry for justice, but you seemingly oppose it. And you are speaking from a position of immense influence as a team co-owner in our league and as a US Senator.
“When Black Lives Matter started, the founders never thought that they would have to add the word “too” at the end of it: Black Lives Matter Too. We just assumed that people would understand that we matter also. Is that too big of an ask?
“If Aborigines had said, “Aboriginal Lives Matter,” would an appropriate response be, “All Australians Matter?”
Loeffler was responding to the WNBA’s plans to recognize the Black Lives Matter movement by featuring its name on courts at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and on the front of warm-up shirts.
“I adamantly oppose the Black Lives matter political movement, which has advocated for the defunding of police, called for the removal of Jesus from churches and the disruption of the nuclear family structure, harbored anti-Semitic views, and promoted violence and destruction
across the country,” Loeffler said. “I believe it is totally misaligned with the values and goals of the WNBA and the Atlanta Dream, where we support tolerance and inclusion.”
The WNBA players’ union fired back at Loeffler, calling on Engelbert to remove her as co-owner. “EN-O-U-G-H! O-U-T!” they wrote on Twitter.
Loeffler then doubled down on her feelings during an interview on Fox News, saying Black Lives Matter is “based on Marxist principles” that threaten to “destroy” American principles.
Montgomery, who was joined by Dream teammate and former Husky Tiffany Hayes in skipping the abbreviated 22-game season, said the movement will continue in spite of Loeffler’s objections.
“From Senator Richard Russell Jr. to Senator Herman Talmadge, whose seat in the US Senate you now occupy, Georgia has a long history of politicians opposing civil rights. However, I want to live in a world where you’re standing with me, arms interlocked in solidarity, just as I would have been with you during the suffrage movement in 1919 to give you, a woman, the right to vote,” Montgomery wrote.
“I kindly invite you to rethink your stance and join a discussion with me. While you might very well be on the “right” side of this November’s elections, you are on the wrong side of history if you can’t see that Black Lives Matter.”