The New York Liberty’s Ellie is the best sports mascot ever. Period.
OPINION: Ellie the Elephant combines fun, entertainment, fashion and #BlackGirlMagic, all while paying homage to Black trends and Black culture on the basketball court.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
This is an Ellie the Elephant stan account.
In my opinion, she is the best sports mascot to ever do it, and no, I will not elaborate.
OK, fine. I’ll elaborate.
Have you seen Ellie in action?
I admittedly have never been to a New York Liberty game where she performs, but ever since I started seeing videos of her performances and stunts on TikTok, I have been obsessed with her, and because TikTok has the social media algorithm game in a chokehold, my “For You” page is full of Ellie videos from her account as well as anyone else who even mentions or tags her.
I love that for me.
According to a profile on the social media sensation, Ellie became the official mascot of the Liberty in 2021, when the team moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn. She is the brainchild of three Black women — Liberty’s CEO Keia Clarke, chief brand officer Shana Stephenson and senior director of entertainment Criscia Long, so you know it’s real.
“Black women are just dope. We are the purveyors of culture. We literally create culture,” Stephenson told Andscape.
She added, “The WNBA is a league of mostly Black women, so we are a reflection of the players in the league, on the court, the women in the community, and that’s something that’s really important to this organization. … When we were thinking about Ellie, it was never a doubt that the characteristics of Ellie would also represent that.”
That last part is key. I’ve long maintained that Black culture is American culture, and I am not the only one who believes this. The non-melanated will always try to deny this, but they deny it because they can’t stand to not be centered in everything.
The fact is, our culture is “borrowed” from and appropriated all the time by people who look nothing like us and don’t respect us. Seeing Black women create a cultural icon who represents us in the best ways possible is a reminder that Black women are the blueprint.
Ellie sports a long braid, but she will put on a wig if the occasion calls for it. She wears big hoop earrings and carries various fashion handbags, including her signature Telfar. She dances. She pops it on a handstand. She gives you face. She strikes a pose any time the camera is pointed at her.
Ellie is our good sis.
There is speculation as to who exactly is under the Ellie mask, and in my opinion, as long as the person wearing the costume is Black, I don’t care, baby.
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If you need further evidence of Ellie’s greatness, allow me to share some of my favorite Ellie videos.
There was the time she did Andrea Kelly’s viral choreography for the Beyoncé song “II Hands II Heaven.”
One time, she gave us Mary J Blige right down to the signature curly blonde wig and the boots, baby. And then she busted Mary’s signature moves on the court.
There was the time she emulated Lil Kim and then later danced right alongside her.
She did the #Bongos challenge to Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s hit song, prompting the Bronx rapper to say on Twitter, “Put me to shame…I love it.”
Her doing the Ashanti booty scoot across the floor is such a Black coded thing, I knew before I officially found out that Black people were behind this.
The Missy “Ellie-OTT” rubber suit performance was another banger.
She stays on top of the latest TikTok trends.
She’s just an entire vibe, and I cannot get enough.
I mean, did you see her Beyonce performance?
They call her Big Ellie.
Put some respect on her name and the names of the Black women who made this happen.
Ellie is for the culture.
Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at thejournalista.com
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