The Las Vegas Aces had to deal with a 109-75 loss to the Indiana Fever this weekend, something that undoubtedly impacted the team's vibes as they left the game. But those negative feelings were likely nothing compared to what Chelsea Gray felt when she opened up her social media to a racist message.
The message contained a word we won't write here, and it was so vulgar that Gray took a screenshot—complete with the sender's username and profile photo—and shared it in her own Instagram Story. "People act like we just make this s--t up," she captioned the screenshot. "And the audacity to tell us as athletes to 'shut up and dribble.'"
While that's as far as Gray went, fans of the Aces' guard went to work. They searched the username the man sent the message from, and it turned out it was pretty easy to trace him to his employer. Per ESPN, Hilton Grand Vacations soon sent out a statement to several outlets that indicated the man had been fired.
"The person responsible for posting this information is no longer with the company," Hilton Grand Vacations said in the statement. "His behavior was in violation of multiple company policies and does not reflect our company's values in any way."
Everything that happened is the appropriate response
Gray didn't call on anyone to do anything when she posted her message, she just shared it to note part of what she—and so many other players in the WNBA—have to deal with on a regular basis. As ESPN also noted, it's only been a couple of weeks since Alyssa Thomas revealed she and DeWanna Bonner have been on the receiving end of racist threats and messages. Despite the WNBA's insistence that that kind of messaging has no place in the league, it's difficult to police what can feel like an endless sea of people online.
And that's not really the job of the league, and it's definitely not the job of the players. Yes: if the league is made aware of a message that is harmful, they should put resources into addressing that message and making sure the person who sent it or said it cannot contact the player(s) they sent it to again. But something like what Gray did, and the subsequent response, came down to fans who want to do what they can to make things better and easier.
It was appropriate for the company to fire the man in question. Racism is, frankly, disgusting. There's nothing that justifies sending that kind of of message to anyone, anywhere, and the actions of everyone who stepped in after Gray shared the first message made the difference.
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