It all started for Angel Reese after a loss.
“I don’t fit the narrative; I don’t fit in the box y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto — y’all told me that all year. So this is for the girls that look like me, that’s going to speak up on what you believe in. It’s unapologetically you, and that’s what I did it for tonight,” said LSU star Angel Reese in a tearful post-game speech following LSU’s loss in the Final Four to Iowa.
The next day, FS1’s Speak host Emmanuel Acho gave what he deemed a “gender-neutral, racially indifferent take on Angel Reese.”
Black women have historically been the most marginalized group in America, but I’m going to give a gender neutral and racially indifferent take on Angel Reese:
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) April 2, 2024
“In sports, you can’t act like the big bad wolf, then cry like courage the cowardly dog.” pic.twitter.com/aUtxZ7JHk4
“Angel Reese, you can’t be the big bad wolf and but then kind of cry like Courage the Cowardly Dog,” exclaimed Acho. “Because if you want to act grown, which she has! If you want to get paid like you’re grown, which you are! if you want to talk to grown folks like you’re grown, which you did….then postgame when you take an ‘L’ then you just gotta’ take it on the chin.”
Acho’s comments are the furthest thing from gender and race-neutral.
Black women in sports receive the fiercest vitriol from public media, and Dr. Moya Bailey would say Acho’s comments were misogynoir – the anti-black racist misogyny Black women experience. Oftentimes, the racialized and gendered harassment Black women face is shaped by sports media narratives, which is why discussions on this subject must be had in sports media.
In pursuing compelling storylines, the media often resort to unfair characterizations, particularly regarding Black women.
In the case of LSU and Reese, they were painted as villains, a false and damaging narrative that justifies criticism. Angel Reese, however, accepted and played the role she was assigned.
Responding to Acho, Joy Taylor eloquently pointed out that Reese’s behavior is no different than that of male athletes and asked who made Reese the villain. Ironic that the Black guy who wrote the book about uncomfortable conversations with Black men was not ready to have an uncomfortable conversation with a Black woman or about Black women.
Acho wants to act grown on TV, get paid by media companies like he’s grown, and talk to grown folks like he’s grown, so he needs to be held accountable like he’s grown.
After Joy’s question, Acho’s initial response was that Reese created the narrative, but Joy countered with a gendered and race-inclusive perspective that Reese was herself- an unapologetic Black woman who embraces Black culture to its fullest.
Dr. Tomika Ferguson writes that college sports are spaces for Black women college athletes to disrupt oppressive structures. Individually, Reese didn’t have the power to create a national storyline; in fact, it was quite the opposite. Reese embraced and countered narratives about her Blackness and swagger by doubling down on herself, after which sports media pounced on it and ran with it for these companies have the power to control narratives and know how to use it to their advantage.
And based on the ratings of the Iowa vs LSU game, which averaged 12.3 million viewers, they succeeded.
By Dr. Wayne Black
