You’ve been hearing about “That Girl” all weekend and you need to know that, that girl has a name — and it’s Sha’Carri (pronounced Sha-Kerry) Richardson.
The athlete made waves this weekend for several reasons — She became America’s fastest woman when her runtime qualified her for the upcoming Toyko Olympics, her beautiful moment embracing her grandmother whom she gives credit for her success made our hearts melt, and her bright orange hair and all-around beauty grabbed the attention of damn near everyone.
She also made waves for another reason on Saturday, when people noticed that she tweeted out the rainbow emoji — and only the rainbow emoji. I don’t know Sha’Carri IRL at all (but like would love to be friends babe!) but it felt very her. I looked at the tweet and felt like it encapsulated the “That’s it — that’s the tweet.” phrase that so many of us on the bird app like to say.
🌈
— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) June 19, 2021
When I saw that I could not have been happier, I was already proud of this badass babe for winning that race and qualifying (it should be noted that she had BEEN on the radar as an Olympic hopeful way before Saturday’s win), but now I felt like I was on an episode of Animaniacs. I put my phone down, stood up and looked out my window and was all “It’s happening — BLACK QUEER FEMMES ARE TAKING OVER THE WORRRRLLLDDD!!!!” A maniacal laugh may or may not have followed but like, how dope is that? A Black woman that all the world is focused on is not only getting her flowers in the moment — but is also queer?
I, of course, had to do a bit more research before running to the Autostraddle team with the news but when I learned a bit more I was blowing up our Slack. Richardson hasn’t explicitly said that she is queer (nor does she fucking have to) but she isn’t hiding anything either. Making cute Tiktoks referring to a girlfriend, posting on IG on her stories and feed with the rainbow flag happily present, and the biggest thing — saying her girlfriend picked her now-infamous orange hair color out for her.
It should also be said that she has been vocal about giving credit to the Black women athletes that came before her. Like, I’ve said it before — Black Gen Z queers are pretty fucking amazing.
What really made me smile was seeing her fellow Texan (and queer babe) Kaash Paige leave cute and encouraging comments on her IG!
There is a lot to be said about the seemingly unstoppable talent that is Sha’Carri Richardson and I only wish her the best of the best. She is carrying big wins, personal traumas, and more all while the world has all eyes on her. She has a family that cares for her, a girl that adores her, and probably the true support from many a true friend.
So i’m sending her good vibes, lots of rest (mentally and physically) and can’t wait to keep cheering her on like the auntie that I am.
Also, Also — Big love and congrats to Javianne Oliver & Teahna Daniels who took 2nd and 3rd place on Saturday and will be joining Sha’Carri at the Olympics!!
I was about to come here to ask if AS knew about this amazingness. YESSSSS!!!!!
This made my whole day, week, life!
Sha’Carri is the absolute truth. Unapologetically fierce. I feel sorry for folks who haven’t seen her run.
Simone Biles had an IG story where she was rooting for Sha’Carri Richardson and for some reason I just thought right away that she must be queer. So weird to see this post just a few days later. Congrats, Sha’Carri!! 🥳
Did anyone not see her problematic tweet back in March saying to unfollow her if you support lilnasx?
this is going on my Olympic Season Talking Points top of list! “oh, worlds fastest woman? also has a girlfriend”
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Are you lost? This is a website that explicitly cares about and writes about queerness, and we fucking love to see a queer Black woman thriving. There are a bunch of sports news sites to choose from, go to one of those if you don’t like the words “queer” or “fuck”.
This is the fucking amazing queer content I come here for :)
No idea how I missed this over the weekend, but AS (and Shelli and Christina in particular) always come through to keep me informed on the essential stuff.
When they said black queer people were gonna be more powerful following Juneteenth this was who they were talking about.
It’s just so nice seeing someone unapologetically black af and queer af do the damn thing and get her flowers while doing it.
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moderators please remove this comment
Too bad she doesn’t support the rest of the queer black community and has made comments (as soon as March of this year) that if you follow Lil Nas X to unfollower her, or if a dude wear pink to die in a pit cause he gay…
After reading this article it literally almost turned me from following a cute talented young woman that I actually like.
And how shes banned for drug use.
I guess you spoke a lil too soon! LMAO