‘I Will Beat Geno’s Ass’ — Dawn Staley’s Viral Moment Highlights Disrespect Towards Black Women In The Workplace [Op-Ed]
For many Black women, Geno Auriemma’s behavior Friday night reflects a familiar dynamic many of us have encountered in the workplace. The post ‘I Will Beat Geno’s Ass’ — Dawn Staley’s Viral Moment Highlights Disrespect Towards Black Women In The Workplace [Op-Ed] appeared first on MadameNoire.
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The backlash following UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s outburst at South Carolina coach Dawn Staley in the closing seconds of their national semifinal matchup on Friday night (April 3) has drawn a considerable amount of media attention and support from fans of both teams. Coach Auriemma sparked the heated exchange by allegedly accusing Coach Staley of not shaking his hand before the game, an accusation refuted by a video aired by ESPN that shows the two exchanging handshakes.
As Staley walked away from Auriemma, she yelled, “I will beat Geno’s ass,” a line that has since gone viral with at least one sports bar adding the phrase to its marquee.
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In an interview on Saturday, April 4, one of Coach Auriemma’s former star players, retired WNBA player Diana Taurasi, downplayed the exchange between the rival coaches, saying it was nothing more than “two people competing at the highest level that have a tremendous amount of respect for each other.”
But, for many Black women, Auriemma’s behavior reflects a familiar dynamic many of us have encountered in the workplace where no matter how hard we work, we still face discrimination and disrespect from white colleagues.
Many of us are taught before we set foot in our first office jobs that to be a Black woman in the workplace means we have to work twice as hard to be twice as good, only to get half as far.
According to a 2020 study released by Lean In and McKinsey and Company, Black women “experience a wider range of microaggressions” and are “more likely to have their judgment questioned in their area of expertise and to be asked to provide additional evidence of their competence.”
As a longtime newsroom leader who has occupied top high-level editorial positions at some of the top news organizations in the country, I’ve experienced this more times than I can count. I’ve had my editorial judgment questioned in ways and with a level of veracity my white peers do not experience. I have never been accused of not shaking someone’s hand before a game, but I have experienced managers dwelling on trivialities unrelated to my work and calling into question my personal ethics and professionalism.
Over the past several decades, Coach Dawn Staley has emerged as a legendary figure in women’s basketball who has shown she’s willing to work twice as hard.
The four-time U.S. Olympic gold medal winner (three as a player and one as head coach in 2021) played seven seasons in the WNBA, and for most of those seasons, she simultaneously coached Temple University’s women’s basketball team.
The post ‘I Will Beat Geno’s Ass’ — Dawn Staley’s Viral Moment Highlights Disrespect Towards Black Women In The Workplace [Op-Ed] appeared first on MadameNoire.
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