Fast and Female’s Statement on Anti-Racism

The discrimination and injustice that is happening and has happened to Black people and Black communities is appalling. We stand together in solidarity with the Black community and all those who face injustice and oppression from systemic and individual racism.

Fast and Female was created in 2005 to tackle the inequalities and systemic barriers for girls and women in sports; however, we are also aware of how these inequalities reach far beyond sport culture and how they affect racialized and marginalized populations more than others.

We recognize that Fast and Female’s values of Inclusion and Social Change cannot be fully realized until we address these injustices and oppression and make meaningful change. We acknowledge our inaction in addressing and prioritizing anti-racism in our programs and organization, especially with regard to anti-Black racism. We know that as an organization, we must play a role in speaking up, showing our support, and providing a platform to raise the voices of our Black community. As an organization, we can and will do better.

Words have power, but it’s just the starting place.  

Fast and Female is committed to:

Listening. We will create and support an Anti-Racism and Respect Advisory Committee to inform and guide our programming practices, staff and volunteer education, and key areas of our operations. We will ensure this committee has meaningful representation from racialized and marginalized communities. We will create more opportunities for feedback and evaluation of our programming with a strong focus on anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion.

Educating. We will implement mandatory training and education opportunities for our staff, board of directors, and role models on anti-racism and diversity and inclusion, with a strong focus on working with racialized and marginalized communities.

Acting. We will work with our role models and other organizations to ensure better representation of racialized and marginalized people on our teams and in our role model network so that all girls, especially Black girls and girls of color, see themselves in our programming and in our role models.

Engaging. We will continue to seek values-based partnerships with organizations that serve and raise the voices of Black communities and other racialized communities to work together to reduce barriers for girls in sport while actively working on anti-racism.

We want to thank those who have provided feedback and continue to welcome feedback from our community members and their loved ones on how we can make this change. We encourage anyone with feedback and those that may be interested in working with us to support these commitments to reach out to us HERE.

Although we know that this is just a start, we are committed to continuing our work to find solutions and do better. This is the start of a long-term commitment that Fast and Female is making toward anti-racism, inclusion, and diversity.

• Resources & Tools Regarding Racism & Anti-Blackness & How to be a Better Ally
• Educate Yourself
• Anti-racism resources
• The Guide to Allyship

• Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
• Melanin and Mental Health
• Therapy for Black Girls – Podcast and search engine for therapists in your area.
• Therapy for Black Men – Search engine for therapists or coaches in your area, as well as additional resources
• National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

• The Conscious Kid (and IG)
• How to talk to your children about protests and racism
• CNN and “Sesame Street” to host town hall addressing racism
• Common Sense Media: Books with characters of color