On Friday night, the Portland Thorns posted a video of the incident between Morgan Weaver and Kristen Edmonds with the words “Morgan Weaver is innocent.” Both fans and media called them out, pointing to the fact that framing a white woman as “innocent” in an on-field altercation with a Black woman perpetuates racist stereotypes that frame Black women as aggressors and white women pure and incapable of harm.
The Thorns organization also responded to a tweet from Sarah Gorden, who criticized the initial tweet, saying “the intent of [their] post had an unintended impact.” That’s an acknowledgement that the post caused harm—to whom or how isn’t made clear—but nothing more.
The club deleted the initial post this morning, but has yet to apologize for the language it used.
The intent of the tweet may have been simply to support Weaver as a Thorns player and to dispute the official’s decision, but it became clear shortly after it was posted that the choice of words had an unintended but very real impact on Black players and fans. Language matters, and good intentions don’t absolve us of responsibility.
The Rose City Review is calling on the Thorns organization to issue an apology for the language they used in Friday night’s tweet. Deleting a post after five days of fan pushback—and dismissing those who called it racist during that time—is not good enough. Last summer, when conversations about race in America were in full force, the club repeatedly expressed its commitment to racial justice. The first part of such a commitment always has to be listening to and believing those harmed by racism.
We stand with the Black players, fans, and media of the NWSL and will always strive to hold ourselves accountable to this same standard.
