Kahleah Copper voices importance of athlete activism with Election Day approaching: ‘I have a big responsibility’

Kahleah Copper reflected on the WNBA’s 2020 season and player demands to display Breonna Taylor’s name on their jerseys and Black Lives Matter on the court.

“Going into that season, it was about, ‘Say her name,’” the Phoenix Mercury’s All-Star guard told a crowd gathered at REC Philly in Center City on Tuesday night.

“That is so inspiring,” Philadelphia city councilwoman Kendra Brooks responded. “I’m like, ‘Wow.’”

Copper and Brooks were on a panel discussion hosted by Watch Party PHL, the Working Families Party, and women’s sports content platform Togethxr. A primary goal, Watch Party PHL founder Jen Leary said, was to inspire attendees to vote. And one week before Election Day, it also offered Copper the opportunity to return home to look back at her own activism and how she hopes it remains at the core of her impact as a kid from North Philly.

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“I have a big responsibility, coming from my community and having this platform,” Copper, 30, told the crowd. “... It‘s important that young girls that look like me and that [are] from where I‘m from, that they see me like, ’Yes, she got to where she wants to be. Yes, she has a little bit of a spotlight on her, but she’s still the same person.

“‘She’s still standing on all of the things that are important to her. Nothing has changed.’”

Joining Copper, Brooks, and Leary on the panel were Nelini Stamp and Yasmine Hamou from WFP, along with Beulah Osueke, the former West Catholic High School girls' basketball coach who is now the executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice.

They spoke to onlookers wearing the WNBA’s signature orange hoodies or Togethxr’s “Everyone watches women’s sports” T-shirts and others in gear supporting presidential candidate Kamala Harris or “I voted” stickers. It was a reminder that — despite those who insist athletes should “shut up and dribble” — sports, politics, and social justice can intersect more than the general public may initially consider.

“I’m really starting to see a lot of people put it all together,” said Osueke, who in 2020 became the first Black coach to win a Catholic League championship and in 2021 was the first Black woman to coach her team to a PIAA title. “And that’s very exciting because politics and social justice interact with every aspect of our lives. So to be in a mixed space, where people get it on different levels, is very exciting.”

Copper was not the only professional basketball player with Philly ties at voter-centric events Tuesday. 76ers players KJ Martin and Reggie Jackson stopped by the Let’s Party to the Polls gathering at LOVE Park, which also featured appearances by Quavo and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Jackson then jetted to another event following his team’s afternoon practice.

“Just letting everybody know that voting is important,” Martin said. “Everyone has their own opinion, so I’m not going to judge anyone on who they vote for. … But just explaining the process, that it’s not super complicated, and just getting a lot of people together. It was a fun environment.”

But the WNBA — a league largely comprised of Black and LGBTQ+ players — has always been at the forefront of activism. Tuesday’s event with Copper included a screening of the documentary film Power of the Dream, which chronicled that 2020 season played during the COVID-19 pandemic and a time of social unrest. When Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler, then a U.S. senator, criticized the league’s decision to support the Black Lives Matter movement, her own team endorsed Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock — who then won a Georgia runoff to defeat Loeffler.

“What we were able to do, as far as flip a Senate,” Copper said, “there’s never been a league to come together in solidarity the way we were able to do it.”

Added Reji Gregoire, of the WFP: “Politics was happening to them, and the film that we’re screening is about that. It’s about when you can’t shut up and play ball because it’s actively happening to you right now.”

That outing was part of the evolution of Leary’s women’s sports watch parties, which she launched to cultivate a community and provide “tangible data” that Philly could support a WNBA team. Copper grinned when alerted that the group staged an outdoor block party to watch her and fellow Philly native Natasha Cloud play for the Mercury. Earlier this month, Sixers play-by-play television voice Kate Scott was a guest for a WNBA Finals party. Last Saturday, they held a “Haunting for Harris” happy hour featuring a screening of the film Little Shop of Horrors, election-themed candy, and a “Kamala cocktail.”

“I hope that the people listening [Tuesday],” Leary said, “if they’re on the fence about doing something or not sure if they’re going to make a difference or how it’s going to work out, just do it anyway. Because we need more of this. We need more community. We need more people organizing and speaking up — especially right now.”

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Naturally, an audience question was posed to Copper about how a WNBA team would fare in Philly, where the fan base is passionate and ruthless. Copper believes that, “in certain cities, those teams, wherever you’re from, you start to move and have a swag like you from the city.

“I look at some of those guys from the Sixers,” she continued, “from when they first came to now, they different. That’s Philly. … If we can bring a team here and embrace that team and allow them to grow here — and give them that good Philly welcome — they’ll be on board.”

But the discussion was bigger than basketball. It was about becoming more than one’s profession and the challenges of speaking out on issues one deems important.

All of that is now part of Copper’s impact as a North Philly athlete.

“You could hear a pin drop,” Osueke said. “And I think it’s that reverence [for Copper] and that appreciation for the investment, but also the recognition of the power we all hold to do the same in our communities.”