The original draft of this email was sent to Washington Post sports reporter Candace Buckner, copying several additional Post sportswriters and ESPN commentators Kevin Blackistone and Michael Wilbon.
Dear Candace,
In paragraph 3 of your D1 story this morning, “Kelly Loeffler sells WNBA’s Atlanta Dream after clash with players over Black Lives Matter,” you say former senator and WNBA owner Kelly Loeffler “became an enemy” (emphasis mine) of the league’s players by “speaking out against Black Lives Matter,” a neo-Marxist organization that, among other radical positions, argues for ending America’s nuclear-family norm.
Since most sensible Americans embrace the nuclear family and its nurturing of free-thinking individuals as the foundation of modern Western Civilization, would that, by your logic, make most of us enemies of WNBA players, too?
Are we enemies of WNBA players just because we don’t want to defund police departments or eliminate bail for dangerous criminals or otherwise institutionalize the soft bigotry of low expectations by eroding high standards and merit-based competition?
Speaking of merit, if WNBA players’ support for BLM is to be taken seriously, shouldn’t they be demanding that their league stop keeping score and naming all-stars and conducting playoffs? Shouldn’t they demand that their teams stop cutting people and just let everyone who wants to play have a uniform and fancy sneakers and enjoy a more relaxed, less judgmental intramural-like format without regard to individual performance?
While you ponder those questions, and the never-made-a-profit WNBA ponders whether it really wants to alienate BLM critics, please reconsider your irresponsible use of divisive, incendiary language like “enemy.” It does no one any good.
Darren McKinney, Washington, D.C.