The WNBA has proposed that the players wear a patch honoring the 250 Anniversary of the U.S. during the WNBA All-Star game.

Brianna Turner, who plays for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and is the treasurer of the WNBA’s players association called out the wearing of these patches pointing to the fact that at the founding of this country, Black people were slaves and all women didn’t have the right to vote and were basically second-class citizens. Turner posted on social media: “Whoever called for the WNBA all star uniforms to have the USA 250 patch should have thought that through considering no WNBA players would have been free 250 years ago. The majority wouldn’t even have their freedom 100 years ago.¹ She further posted, “The irony of all the USA 250 stuff is that the vast majority of people in America today would not have been ‘free’ 250 years ago." In a follow-up post she wrote, "We are some of the most elite female athletes, 250 years ago we would have been breeders or in the fields working all day.”

As U.S. sports leagues are determining how their teams should display these patches, it is critical for a lot more athletes to come out and oppose it.

Bob Avakian has made it clear that:

This “Republic” to which we are supposed to pledge allegiance was founded on slavery and genocidal robbery: keeping millions of Black people in chains for generations... killing off huge numbers of Native Americans and stealing their land... waging a war that ripped off half of Mexico, greatly expanding slavery.

In his speech on the THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, Bob Avakian said:

Did you know that the Constitution adopted by the founders of this country institutionalized the right of men to rape, at will? I had thought of beginning this talk with that statement—and then, in response to the gasps of shock and disbelief that such a statement should call forth, I could have said: No, the Constitution didn’t actually do that, but it did something no less horrific: institutionalizing the enslavement of millions of people. In fact, however, the Constitution adopted by the “founders” did legalize mass rape: Besides enshrining property relations in which men could legally rape their wives, the Constitution, by explicitly codifying the status of slaves as property, in effect established the “right” of the slaveowners to do anything they wished to their slaves, including raping the women. And slave women were raped, regularly and repeatedly, by their owners and overseers.

In addition, all the way up until the 1970s, it was legal for husbands to rape their wives, effectively treating women as property of their husbands.

As Bob Avakian points out, the oppression of Black people and the patriarchal oppression of women have been woven into the system of U.S. capitalism-imperialism. Despite the fact that there have been reforms in terms of abolishing slavery and giving the women the right to vote, the oppression of both Black people and women continue today. Black people face mass incarceration and murder at the hands of the cops. Women face the attacks on the right to abortion and ongoing misogyny and patriarchy.

Cheers to Brianna Turner for pointing out that these patches should not be worn because of the history of slavery and the oppression of women in this country. People from all walks of life and of all nationalities should join her in protest.