I think what last night really highlighted was just how raw this is for a lot of people especially Black folx, and Black players. As a fan I watched the first game between the Thorns and NCC with excitement. They all seemed unified in their support of BLM and for their teammates. I appreciated the tribute considering so many of the players on both teams were Black, and then I got to focus on the game. A game that brought back a feeling that myself and so many others hadn’t felt in 3 months, some semblance of normality.

And then came the Washington Chicago game. And clearly a lot of us were unprepared to be confronted by the truth that so many people will turn the idea of the BLM movement into something political when it is not. That people will still try to justify their inaction with performance. I’ve seen the arguments from owners and coaches saying there their teams are unified against racism. Clearly they’re not. And I refuse to accept explanations from rich, white, cis men excusing the lack of solidarity of their white women. It is not solidarity to stand during the anthem and then kneel for 46 secs before kickoff. That is textbook performative allyship. As we saw last night it becomes a way to act like you care, to show the outside world that you are doing something instead of actually doing anything at all. Same goes for all the players who posted a black tile for Blackout Tuesday then said absolutely nothing before or after. In order to make change we can no longer accept performative allyship to quell the conscience of white guilt.

I hope you all have been educating yourselves the last month and understand that allyship means nothing, we need non-Black people to be actively anti-racist, to use their whiteness to help, protect and benefit Black people, we need them to be co-conspirators. A perfect example is Megan Rapinoe kneeling in 2017 beside her Black teammates who were unable to because they knew, simply based on the color of their skin that they could so easily lose their careers as a result. And lest we forget that Rapinoe was punished, she was scolded and reprimanded. Even some of her teammates called her actions a distraction. Imagine the consequences had it been a Black player.

So, I no longer want to see people framing any of the standing white players as the victims. They aren’t the victims, they made their decision. They decided to make a non-political issue: Black Lives Matter into a debate. And no matter how they want to justify it kneeling for the flag isn’t political. But what they said to Black people and especially the heartbroken Black player beside them is:

“Huh, I see that you’re upset, and I know that you and all 50 states, 18 countries and 54 African nations keep saying that the police target and kill Black people a lot and maybe they shouldn’t. But as a white woman, I’ve never experienced that and the flag, this country and the police represent safety and security for me and my family. Anyway, I see that you’re crying, here is my hand on your shoulder because I too feel your pain.”

And no, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see players kneel if they don’t mean it. But I won’t be excusing them, I won’t be going easy on them, I won’t be waiting to hear them explain themselves or try to justify their reasoning behind it, and I also won’t be giving them kudos for standing for the anthem and kneeling for George Floyd. It’s time that we stop giving white people the benefit of the doubt when they continue to tell us exactly how they feel about issues that don’t affect them.