{"id":58394,"date":"2019-06-24T19:36:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T19:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=58394"},"modified":"2019-06-24T19:36:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T19:36:57","slug":"why-am-i-different-behind-this-wnba-players-activism-was-a-search-for-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=58394","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why am I different?\u2019 Behind this WNBA player\u2019s activism was a search for the answer."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Why am I different?\u2019 Behind this WNBA player\u2019s activism was a search for the answer.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2019-06-22<\/p>\n

Ava Wallace<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nNatasha Cloud<\/a> in the Mystics’<\/a> locker room Friday, when she followed through on a “media blackout” to discuss only gun violence. (Doug Kapustin for The Washington Post)<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Some 30 minutes after the Washington Mystics lost to the Seattle Storm<\/a> on June 14 in Southeast D.C.<\/a>, starting guard Natasha Cloud<\/a> moved from her seat along the back wall of the Mystics\u2019<\/a> locker room to stand at the front, pausing twice to maneuver around various reporters pointing TV cameras and cellphones at her face.<\/p>\n

She was not among the Mystics\u2019 leading scorers that night, but she would be their only player to address the media.<\/p>\n

Her voice quavering but strong, Cloud, 27, read a prepared statement on behalf of the team rather than answer questions about the game. She followed through on plans she announced the day before on Instagram to hold a \u201cmedia blackout\u201d to address only gun violence in Washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cloud\u2019s public action came together over little more than 24 hours. But it was the culmination of a long journey, the result of maturation, her increased status with the Mystics since the start of last season and, most importantly, a level of comfort in her own skin that took years to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my fifth year in the league,<\/a> and it took me five years to be like, I know something\u2019s wrong, but how do I use my voice? What is my voice? Who am I to speak on the situation?\u201d Cloud said. \u201cYou know, I didn\u2019t grow up that way. I grew up in a privileged, white family. How do I correlate that?\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is my fifth year in the league, and it took me five years to be like, I know something\u2019s wrong, but how do I use my voice? What is my voice? Who am I to speak on the situation?\u201d Cloud said. \u201cYou know, I didn\u2019t grow up that way. I grew up in a privileged, white family. How do I correlate that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,23674,20,25],"tags":[29958,11052,29959,7222,2875,29960,25360,3549,2581,29956,29957],"class_list":["post-58394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","category-women","tag-ava-wallace","tag-basketball","tag-natasha-cloud","tag-sports","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washginton-mystics","tag-washington-d-c","tag-washington-dc","tag-washington-post","tag-wnba","tag-womens-national-basketball-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58396,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58394\/revisions\/58396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}