Warriors have dynamic duo leading in Bay Area community

• Programming note: Race In America: A Candid Conversation will air Wednesday night after Warriors-Suns on NBC Sports Bay Area.

SAN FRANCISCO -- They rage against discrimination while simultaneously making donations to politicians, interest groups and corporations committed to perpetuating it.

There is ample evidence that many of the pledges made by our sports leagues to seek a more just and inclusive America are nothing more than attempts by wealthy individuals to airbrush the images of themselves, their businesses and their teams.

Yoyo Chan and Lauren Clayborne are determined to separate the Warriors from the empty-vows crowd. Their shared goal, expressed with conviction, is to ensure their employer stands for something greater than quality basketball and a fabulous facility.

As vice president of government and community relations, Chan keeps her hands on the mechanisms that bond the team to its local and global neighborhood. Clayborne, director of community relations, is primarily responsible for implementing the vision.

Both discussed their roles, frustrations and appreciations while appearing as guests on “Race in America: A Candid Conversation,” which premieres Wednesday night after the Warriors-Phoenix Suns game on NBC Sports Bay Area.

“We are both leaders in this organization, really proud to be women of color, who have been elevated to a leadership level here,” says Chan, who is Asian-American. “It’s our responsibility to say what is important, to have those hard conversations where decisions are being made, where other people can’t or don’t have the privilege to do so.”

In short, Chan and Clayborne often act as representatives and advocates for women, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

Chan’s personal and professional background is appropriate for this role with the Warriors.

She worked in the corridors of City Hall in San Francisco, where she was a legislative aide to Supervisor Malia Cohen. Chan has been a community activist since middle school, when she knocked on doors to support specific political causes.

Clayborne grew up in Michigan, where after graduating from Michigan State University she worked for the Detroit Lions in a capacity similar to that in which she serves the Warriors. Before taking the job in San Francisco, she aced interviews with several Warriors executives, including Chan.

That Clayborne, a Black woman, was hired six months after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd is not a coincidence.

“The murder of George Floyd catapulted our employee research groups within the company,” she says.

What followed, according to Clayborne, was a series of meetings that led to sessions that would unify and galvanize the entire franchise. The Black Alliance Network was created within the Black resource group. It invited everyone to share their feelings in the aftermath of the videotaped murder that led to global protests against racism and police brutality.

The involvement was at every level, touching both the basketball and business operations of the Warriors. Players, too, as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were among four players who joined Juan Toscano-Anderson for a unity march around Lake Merritt in Oakland.

“It allowed the Warriors organization to be a beacon in The Bay,” Clayborne said of the team’s action plan. “To see that it’s not just something they talk about on social media, but also something that they put their voice to. They put their wallet, they put their feet, they put their heart into it.”

This is in keeping with the stated mission of the franchise since Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team in 2009. When the Warriors paid almost $250 million to small businesses for the construction of Chase Center, 29 of the companies were owned by people of color. They continue to support BIPOC-owned businesses through Franchise Fund, in partnership with United Airlines.

The team’s leadership also created the Supplier Diversity Program, the purpose of which is to direct businesses owned by women/BIPOC to provide goods and services to the Warriors.

“Being in sports and being a woman of color in sports, specifically on the business side of it, it’s hard,” Chan says. “We’re really lucky with the Warriors. We have progressed, significantly, when you look at some of the other teams and leagues across our industry.”

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One of the goals shared by Chan and Clayborne is to see all women receive the respect and opportunity generally reserved for white men. The latest public example took place this month, with the aggressive, inane and sometimes offensive behavior displayed during the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman who happens to be a federal judge nominated for appointment to the United States Supreme Court.

Chan and Clayborne were unanimous in their disgust -- and not afraid to say so on TV.

That’s the freedom they have been given. Speak their minds, stand on their truths, be sincere in outreach and be prepared to articulate the rationale behind their positions.

It’s one thing for a corporation to talk about diversity and inclusion, quite another to acknowledge that the essential ingredient is diversity of voices. Otherwise, words are empty. And equality never comes.