When NBA players put the 2020 Playoffs on hold in late August, one topic discussed among those players was the owners doing more for social justice causes.
As players looked to the league’s top decision-makers, Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai and his wife, Clara Wu, were a step ahead, having already announced their social justice initiative just before the stoppage in play.
We stand in solidarity with the Black community, and all Indigenous people and People of Color, to end racism in our organization and in our society.
The Plaza at Barclays Center in Brooklyn has become a gathering space for Black Lives Matter. We are proud of our players’ leadership in speaking out against racism and advocating for social justice.
Racial injustice continues to be pervasive in society, and systemic imbalances must be addressed by the government, the private sector, and individuals. We plan to address the inequities by focusing first on our organization and our community in Brooklyn. We believe Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets, and New York Liberty can become symbols of how we move forward together as a country. We will provide the resources to accelerate change. We hope to lead by example by supporting our athletes, employees, and community in anti-racist work.
Our mission is to use our platform to bring people together around a shared commitment to inclusiveness, justice, and equal opportunity. Our goal is to promote a society where people of all backgrounds can acknowledge differences and share common values without fear. We will promote a culture of belonging, and our community will be a place for dialogue, respect, and empathy.
In a conversation with Yale students earlier in September, Tsai talked about how he and his wife came to their plan (via Nets Daily):
“I’ve never come across this, but when I see a policeman on the streets, I don’t run away. There’s no fear, but as I have conversations with our players and also some friends, people that we know who are black, they start to pour out.
“I mean they … it’s a very, very emotional conversation. We’ve been in a lot of these emotional conversations about the kind of life that they lead that’s different because certain people see other people by the color of their skin and not by what they do and what they accomplish…
“So that’s why my wife and I started an initiative to say that we’re not only going to put money resources behind a social justice program but also look inward and look at our own organization. ‘Are we diverse enough? Are we doing everything we can?’ to promote the social justice cause, especially the issue facing the black community today.”
As part of the Tsai’s five-point plan, the Nets governor committed $50 million over 10 years to “social justice initiatives and community investments that will benefit the BIPOC.”