00:00What's good, Essence family?
00:11It's your girl, Sheree Nicole, producer here at Essence,
00:14and I'm so excited because we are back once again
00:16with another Essence Black Women in Sports Brunch.
00:18Now, you guys remember last time we were in Minneapolis
00:20at the Women's Final Four?
00:21Well, today we are here in New Orleans
00:24at the Essence Festival of Culture.
00:25We're going to be honoring Dawn Staley.
00:27We're going to be honoring Swin Cash.
00:28We're going to also have some amazing panels about Title IX.
00:31I'm so excited, and I need to get a plate.
00:34So let's get into it.
00:35We are here to leave empowered, to impact our communities.
00:40What we're saying is that Black women have been contributing
00:42to the sports ecosystem since the beginning of time.
00:46They just haven't been able to be seen,
00:47and then the Black women, not only are they not able to be seen,
00:50nobody even acknowledges they're in the room.
00:55Dawn Staley, ladies and gentlemen.
00:58I mean, the majority of our sport is made up of Black young women,
01:07and I do think that Black young women
01:10should be coached by Black coaches.
01:13Congratulations.
01:14For you, I mean, you had a series of honors through the roof,
01:18but for today, what does this particular honor mean for you
01:20that may be different from the others?
01:22You know, sometimes when you're being honored,
01:25it seems like it's all about you,
01:28but when you come here, you learn.
01:30On your feet, ladies and gentlemen, for Swin Cash.
01:34Swin Cash.
01:37That by far probably encompasses, like, who I truly am,
01:42and I'm glad that y'all did it.
01:46And I want to talk about the tenacity that you have,
01:49because it's not just on the court.
01:51It's off the court as well.
01:51You've been mentioning, hey, whatever job it is,
01:54if you want me to do it, I can do it.
01:56Where does that come from?
01:57What's that rooted in for you?
01:59That's one of the many reasons why
02:01I want young girls to play sports,
02:03because sports taught me a lot of that.
02:06It gave me an opportunity to learn how to fight,
02:08how to get through adversity,
02:10and to explore who I was as a player,
02:13as an activist, as a woman.
02:15At our last Essence brunch,
02:17we were specifically asked,
02:20not because it was streaming,
02:22not to mention Brittany Griner on the stream,
02:26that we were going to shut down the camera,
02:28and we were going to talk about her,
02:29because it was the elephant in the room.
02:30You can't talk about anything right now
02:32without acknowledging that she is not here
02:34where she should be, right?
02:36Have we failed her
02:39by waiting, by letting them tell us,
02:43we got this.
02:45They don't got this.
02:47You had a moment up there.
02:48Yeah.
02:48And it was powerful for me,
02:50journalist to journalist.
02:51There's a call when we take a responsibility
02:53to report what's going on in the world around us.
02:55And essentially, we were told,
02:58hush, don't do what you're supposed to do.
03:01So for you, what's the guilt in that
03:04been like for you to work through,
03:05and how freeing was it for you to share that today?
03:08We are at a place in our country and society
03:10and culturally where we have to do introspecting
03:14and say, if I'm going to challenge you,
03:16if I'm going to criticize you,
03:17if I'm going to ask more of you,
03:19I have to look and say,
03:20what more could you have done?
03:21And I know I could have done more.
03:23And it felt really good to just have that moment.
03:25So I'm in a restaurant,
03:26and this guy's like, oh, you play basketball?
03:28And I'm like, yeah.
03:28I was like, you know what?
03:29You should come to a game.
03:30If you want some tickets, I'll give you some tickets.
03:32He's like, well, he's like,
03:33do you jump as high as LeBron?
03:34I said, no.
03:36He's like, do you run as fast as LeBron?
03:37I said, no.
03:38Why should I come to a game?
03:40I said, well, sir, I run faster,
03:42and I jump higher than you.
03:43We're going to have a great conversation here.
03:44You guys are going to talk about some great things.
03:46But on the other side of that,
03:47how do we extend that beyond just today,
03:49especially through the lens of Black women?
03:51Continuing to have the conversation,
03:53raising the awareness.
03:53I think when more people get to know who we are,
03:56it will raise the tension,
03:57the support of women's sports.
03:59Awareness is important.
04:00We have to know what's going on
04:02to know how to navigate through it
04:03and how to overcome it.
04:04I believe in breaking through glass ceilings,
04:06so I have to know that the ceiling's there
04:07in order to break through it.
04:09I think for us, it's about trying to figure out
04:12how we can all come together as women.
04:14The notion that I should be
04:16either ashamed of being a woman
04:18or ashamed of being Black or both,
04:21you've got to just get that out of your DNA.
04:23We're talking about sports alone.
04:25The people that make decisions
04:26that can impact gender equality
04:29or, for our purposes, Black women equality
04:32are not simply the athletes.
04:35The decisions that are made
04:36that are impacting the athletes
04:37are being made by somebody.
04:39Those somebody should look like us.
04:40Well, guys, that is it.
04:43Food, fun, and some emotional moments as well.
04:45It was so great to see Dawn Staley and Swincash
04:48get their flowers while they're still here.
04:50I'm still in awe, almost speechless.
04:52I hope you guys enjoyed,
04:53and I'm so excited for the next one,
04:55wherever it will be.
04:56So make sure you guys stay connected
04:57to Essence.com to see more
04:59about Essence Black Women in Sports.
05:00Essence Black Women in Sports.
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