We Know You’ve Been Waiting For The Third Edition of The Title IX Content Creator Series… Now It’s Here.
About five years ago, Rekaya Gibson and Angela Spears had the vision behind their podcast Black Girls Talk Sports, which was later extended to include an interactive Facebook group where women can share their unique perspectives about the sports industry and the athletes that make it what it is. The pair also seeks to make the landscape more inclusive by exposing instances of discrimination and sharing the stories of unsung heroes that are often overlooked by mainstream media. Black Girls Talk Sports now has listeners spanning across 100 countries and is a recipient of one of Sports Innovation Lab’s Fan Project Title IX Grants. These grants seek to support and fuel young professionals that are paving the way and transforming the sports industry with creative content creation and business development.
Watch the Full Interview
Growing up, Rekaya Gibson - a co-founder of the popular podcast Black Girls Talk Sports - was set on becoming a sportscaster, despite only seeing men in the field. As the world evolved and podcasts gained popularity, Rekaya saw an opportunity to talk about sports how she wanted to. When elaborating on Rekaya’s point, her best friend and co-host Angela Spears said, “We [women] can have our own narrative around sports. We often don’t see women's perspectives encouraged. There’s a whole group of us that have very strong perspectives around sports that aren’t reflected equally in the media.”
Angela Spears started as a guest on the podcast. After just a few weeks, she became co-host. The two friends later expanded the podcast to include some social justice elements in order to embrace intersectionality within sport. When touching on this, Rekaya said, “Angela and I gave ourselves time to reflect and realized that we have to talk about these issues - not just for our followers, but for the benefit of other people.”
Rekaya and Angela share stories that the media overlooks, putting a unique angle on diversity and the people you don't usually hear about in sports. “We just did a segment on black jockeys in the Derby. People don’t know it, but the African American community actually created the Kentucky Derby. But you don’t hear about that. We want to tell these stories so that young people can hear them and say, ‘hey I can do that too,’” Angela said.
When asked about changes that the pair wishes to see in the industry, Angela commented on the lack of female officiants and referees in sports: “Let me tell you, women will be great officiants because we are a force to be reckoned with.” Meanwhile, Rekaya had a different change that she wishes to see in the future. She highlighted that, despite the slight progress in recent years, there is still a huge problem with the lack of mental health and wellness resources for athletes: “I’d like to see more stories about athletes and mental health so that we can hear their experiences and sufferings first hand. It’s good to show people that their hero may also experience anxiety or depression. Some athletes are leading the way in this conversation, but I’d like to see more of the major leagues embrace the idea that we need to take care of our athletes and see them as vulnerable humans as well. As fans, we have a responsibility to support athletes that may be suffering from mental health issues.”
When touching on the biggest accomplishments they’ve made throughout their 5 year journey, Angela and Rekaya said, “I’ve seen a lot of growth in a bunch of the women within our community. They now feel really comfortable in our space because we've given them the courage to be confident in their own skin and opinions.” That quote says it all. Rekaya and Angela are creating sustainable change by empowering women to step outside of the social constructs society puts on them and dive headfirst into an industry that was historically dominated by white males. These two inspirational “black girls talking sports” are living proof that it is possible to shift the industry while empowering women all over the world to do just that.