Bianca Tedesco, a basketball judge, told in a moving letter published on her social networks the “tortuous reality” that she had to live in her 13-year career in the environment and denounced harassment and sexual harassment. “If I speak today it is because I can’t take it anymore. Because my mental health went through states that are not directly proportional to the demand of my work, but to the harassment and sexual harassment that I received in a clearly macho and unfair environment for those of us who only wanted to work and do well, “he published on his account of Twitter and Instagram.
Tedesco, who participated in the Federal Tournament and the Argentine League, decided to renounce arbitration with this publication that has already generated a response from the Argentine Basketball Confederation. In a statement signed by its president Fabián Borro, the Cab assured that it had already “put into operation its protocol against gender violence” and that “it immediately ordered the provisional suspension of the accused in the exercise of his functions in the field of our basketball. ”.
The complete Tedesco publication
“I am sitting in front of the screen and my fingers move in what appear to be a pile of small plastic squares while inside a tsunami unleashes that forcefully distributes my emotions towards different parts of me. My chest hurts, almost like when the lack of love appeared in my life and energetically burst that new feeling as unpleasant as nostalgic, for the first time.
It is unfair to me that it is this way because, although it is something that is planned, it is not what I wanted. Once again, the system prompted me to make a decision, but fortunately this time it is based on my ideals. And, yes, I can say that it leaves me calm, but that it breaks my heart. They robbed me of my desire, they appropriated my dreams when I slept, they also woke me up from the tortuous reality of which I was a part for almost 13 years. I was planning a retirement near my 50s, at least. But for that it was a sine qua non condition to continue silenced, subdued, turned off and living for others.
I am grateful to the universe for having the opportunity to express what they made me feel, although already, at this precise moment, I cannot stop the drop that overflowed my tear, which has begun its journey towards my jaw. I was scared (a lot) for being exposed to being the quilombera, the tormentor, the whore, the resentful cake. Also for running out of my greatest source of income but, above all, for abandoning the boat of passion that sustained me from the moment when, at the age of 7, I entered a gaming rectangle and never wanted to leave. Even now I don’t want to either, but I have no choice.
Unfortunately, there are those who continue to maintain that oppression, harassment and a lot of mental damage is how projects, ideas and systems are carried out. I can no longer be part of that, I no longer conceive of being subjected for the benefit of a few or a few.
To continue immersed in the idea that those who obtain benefits are not really those who demonstrate on the court, but those who have power want them to demonstrate and, for that, they give them everything until at some point they can learn to fill their lungs with air and blow a whistle. Make believe that the idea is to build based on work, but those of us inside know that people who sleep in the same bed or who do favors for the king of the dome really arrive.
It makes my skin crawl remembering experiences, messages, audios, situations of sexual harassment that I naturalized believing “it is okay for this to happen” or “if I want to continue directing I will have to endure it, there is no other choice”. Actually, there was another, but the option of acknowledging what he had lived and learning from it was too painful to communicate it. From now on we will continue to be the conventilleras who open their mouths to make quilombo, and I really appreciate it (the quilombo thing, of course). If these conventilleras did not express themselves, they would continue to violate us, harass us, rape, harass, silence, submit and kill us. If I speak today, it is because I can’t take it anymore. Because my mental health went through states that are not directly proportional to the demands of my job, but to the harassment and sexual harassment that I received in a clearly macho and unfair environment for those of us who only wanted to work and do well.
Today I have no choice but to step aside, at least for a while. From where I am, I will always build so that other people do not suffer the same as I do, even if I cannot avoid it. At least, if it happens, let them know that they are not alone and that power exercised in an unequal and offensive way is oppression, it is abuse and harassment. Those who knew me in my work know that passion, as well as respect and work were always and were superlative.
My heart is torn, my eyes are swollen, and I have the peace of mind that I have given everything.
Fortunately, today everything is in the hands of justice.
