Last week we paused all women’s rugby news updates on our site and all social media channels to stand up for the Black Lives Matter movement. In March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to make changes to how we covered women’s rugby. Now the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota has done the same. In this case we know we had a choice, we could keep reporting on women’s rugby or we could stand up to fight for injustice. We’ve chosen to stand up.
We will continue to share women’s rugby news as well as highlighting the cross-sections of injustice including systemic racism and police brutality against the black community. Some may question why we’ve taken this stance and we would point you to the values of rugby. We can’t tout these values only when it’s comfortable or easy. We as a rugby community need to be having tough conversations on these topics and we’re attempting to be part of sparking those discussions.
To be clear, we’re not experts on any of these topics. We are learning and trying to be open and transparent about our journey. We will stumble. We will make mistakes.
But we aren’t doing this alone, we’re engaged with several groups that are guiding and providing input as we go. This shift won’t be popular with everyone but we are standing with our entire rugby family and we hope you’ll stand with us in the ultimate message of “with you”.
In our June 2 post highlighting #BlackOutTuesday we posted a list of resources. We’re working to keep those updated and we hope it will be a valuable resource for you as you make your own journey.
Thank you for standing up. We’re with you!
thank you! you have our support!