London Pulse's Halimat Adio praised for powerful post on social media, as fellow players Laura Malcolm, Layla Guscoth and Stacey Francis also speak out
Tuesday 2 June 2020 17:29, UK
Halimat Adio, Laura Malcolm, Layla Guscoth and Stacey Francis are among the netballers across the world taking to social media to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, following the death of American George Floyd.
Adio, an England Roses Futures athlete and member of Vitality Netball Superleague club London Pulse, said that the fact that "some people still don't understand why there is a #blacklivesmatter movement is mind blowing", and that Floyd's death affected her emotionally.
Upon publishing, her post on Twitter received widespread support from the netball community, including from teammate Zara Everitt, Vitality Roses Layla Guscoth and Jade Clarke, and her Pulse head coach Samantha Bird, who said that Adio was showing "true leadership".
Guscoth herself took to social media to make a point that personal actions are needed by everyone in order to eradicate racism.
"Great to see the social media sharing of Black Lives Matter but it means nothing if we don't look at ourselves all over the world, and reflect and change on how we contribute to eradicating racism individually," she said on Instagram.
"So as we #blackouttuesday, think about how we can impact anti-racism - from speaking up for people or checking our own ideas and perceptions... #enoughisenough"
Laura Malcolm, Manchester Thunder's vice-captain and England Rose, shared a highly personal message which included her voicing experiences of "micro aggressions", thoughts from when she was a young girl, and said that there is "work to be done" to educate yourself and others.
"I grew up in an environment where I'd say most believed that racism wasn't present, including myself," she said on Instagram.
"I also grew up really wishing I was white. I used to cry about my hair and I openly said to family members that I would love white skin. I genuinely remember longing to be white. I was too young at the time to know why I felt like that, but now I know it's because of all of the micro aggressions we experience that you might not even realise happen."
Further in the post on Instagram she shared: "I love who I am, and it saddens me to know that I ever felt any different.
"I love that my white Irish mum ran away with a black man, knowing at the time the criticism she would face and the friends she would lose, but not caring because she knew better. I'm proud of who I am, not what I am."
From Perth in Australia, Francis asked her followers to do more to inform and educate themselves and she urged them to be part of a long-lasting change for humanity.
"I understand that I will never understand, but I stand with you," Fran Williams of Wasps Netball said, and clubs across the Vitality Netball Superleague have used their respective platforms to state that they are united against racism.
England Netball have shared that message too and Suncorp Super Netball's sides, including the defending champions the NSW Swifts, have also taken to social media.
