Chelsea Gray’s decision to publicly share a message sent to her on Instagram fueled the fire of the debate surrounding discrimination. Fresh off the Alyssa Thomas incident, where she faced extreme backlash and threats on social media after a flagrant foul on Clark during their June 24 game, Gray revealed that what her fellow WNBA player had to face was far from an isolated incident. Now, Clark’s teammate Aliyah Boston has voiced her support for Gray.
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“It’s crazy though. Because as athletes, we get this all the time. Like I know that Chelsea is far from the only person. I’m glad that she posted that so that guy can be accountable. Because that is just completely unacceptable,” Aliyah Boston said on Wednesday’s episode of her podcast Post Moves with Candace Parker.
“For you to come out here and use all these derogatory terms and like really just get out of pocket, it’s crazy. So I’m glad that she posted it and I’m glad that Hilton Grand did what they needed to do because that’s unacceptable.”
Social media users quickly identified the man who sent Gray the message was an employee of Hilton Grand Vacations. They then informed the company, which immediately investigated the matter and ultimately terminated his employment, a move that Boston and Parker both applauded as an example of meaningful accountability.
Aliyah Boston also cited one particular example of a message she received that was, in a way, unintentionally hilarious. According to her, the sender initially misspelled the slur they intended to use. They then sent another message with the word spelled correctly. While the moment drew laughter during the discussion, Boston could not get over the fact that the sender was willing to put in extra effort simply to double down on their discriminatory behavior.
Sadly, these are still the kinds of issues WNBA players have to face. Despite the WNBA setting up the ‘No Space for Hate’ campaign to combat online harassment, the league has struggled to contain the vitriol the players face on social media platforms.
In fact, things have gotten so bad that the WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and leadership from the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) held a meeting to address these ongoing concerns.
“The conversation underscored the importance of addressing issues early through proactive communication and strengthening the league-union relationship,” the WNBPA and the league said in a joint statement Wednesday.
The league revealed that it will now be working directly with the union to address this recurring issue. However, only time will tell how effective their joint approach will be in getting things under control.