BLACK OUT STORIES | Quincy Amarikwa

What 2020 showed me was vision and confirmation. That the years I spent in the league speaking up in rooms while others stood silent were worth it. That the feeling of slowly being pushed out the league was true. 

Validated by the collective shared experiences of players who were no longer afraid of speaking their truth for fear of the repercussions.

I know my experience fighting for equity for everyone and now I have my brothers, sisters and allies with me. 

This jersey to me represents the #frequincy. It’s the physical manifestation that represents my understanding that in those moments when the system was pushing back, I was right to defend my stance because it was injustice I was fighting against, and the people I was fighting for. 

It means to me that those in rooms who were mistaking my passion for aggression will look back on those times from a different perspective and see that in those moments I’m fighting for radical transparency, not just to be confrontational, as that word was once used to describe me. 

In those rooms and in those moments I’m fighting for the humans at the bottom of the totem pole. The ones who get taken advantage of and the ones who don’t understand how or why it continues to happen. It’s their voices I’m speaking loudly for because I saw nonone else was willing, but as a result of our work over 2020 showed me that to no longer be the case.

I’m thankful and grateful for the experiences I have gathered over the years. They have helped me not only better understand how people can get me wrong, but better understand myself and how I can and will continue to get things wrong as we’re all human.

What this jersey means to me is CHANGE IS HERE. 

This jersey is the end of one road AND the start of a thriving, joyful and prosperous new one.