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    Robert Griffin III Gets ‘Outta Pocket’ With Ryan Clark

    By 6 Mins Read
    Image credit: Outta Pocket with RGIII Youtube screenshot

    Recently, on his podcast Outta Pocket, Robert Griffin III decided to provide social commentary about the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese—a rivalry that has gone from collegiate to professional. In a recent matchup, Clark, who plays for the Indiana Fever, flagrantly fouled Reese, who plays for the Chicago Sky. After the foul, Reese went after Caitlin and had to be held back by one of Clark’s teammates.

    Whether her reaction was warranted or not, stuff like that happens in basketball all the time. People get flagrantly fouled, and sometimes they react to it.

    Robert Griffin III was not a fan of Reese’s response and stated that she “hated Clark.” Not just that, but he made these statements on his podcast, while mimicking stereotypical gestures of Black women, with his white wife in the background applauding his boofonery. Many times, when Black men date outside of their race, it comes with the denigration of Black women and the pedestaling of women of other races. Reese was the one flagrantly fouled. A flagrant foul is considered to be an excessive use of violence and the desire to intentionally harm the other player.  So, according to Griffin, even though Clark was the one punished for INTENTIONALLY harming someone, Reese is the one who is hateful.  Many logical people were understandably upset at his comments, including his former teammate Ryan Clark. 

    Ryan Clark, RGIII, hosts the popular podcast, Pivot, with fellow NFL retirees, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder.  On a recent episode, Ryan addresses his concerns with RGIII’s comments and elucidates the lack of nuance Griffin has about the dynamics between Black women and white women, inside and outside of sports. He specifically mentions that Griffin’s lack of understanding comes from his Griffin’s desire for whiteness, probably stemming from his insecurity over his looks. He is not particularly handsome, and maybe his way of coping involves his desire to be considered attractive by the demographic that is considered the standard of beauty, who knows?

    His current wife is beautiful, his last wife is…, his current wife is beautiful, but he can’t seem to stop obsessing over her whiteness in particular.

    If love has no color, or whatever people like him say, then he should probably stop mentioning his insatiable desire for milk. Ryan Clark asserted that RGIII was jumping on the hate train that involved stereotyping Black women as angry, and that Griffin was not having conversations in his home about what Black women in this country endure.

    Clark stated, “he would make all of these sort of corny jokes about milk and about how much he loved it, and how important is was, and he always points out on social media the color of his wife’s skin, as if the color of her skin makes her special, as if the color of her skin is what makes her a good wife.” Clark also mentioned that his constant mentioning of milk came with the denigration of Black women and his desire to approximate himself to whiteness would never stop him from being considered Black. 

    In response to Clark’s comments, Griffin looked in the playbook of the women he’s dated and immediately victimized himself in a follow-up recording. His wife was unavailable to play mascot in the background as he feigned an injured spirit, this time.

    Maybe she was taking care of his four Black women.

    Griffin accused Clark of attacking his wife and family simply because he pointed out his obsession with white women. Clark never stated anything negative about his wife and never even mentioned his daughters, but Griffin still took the defensive.  In the midst of this back and forth, the internet pulled up receipts of Griffin’s fetishism. While Griffin has been on a delete spree, the screenshots of his love for lactose have been plastered everywhere. Now, in all fairness, RGIII has posted about Black women. He has posted how he supports four Black women. However, those four Black women are his four daughters, none of whom are actually women, all of whom have a white mother. He did, however, state that he supports the Black women he is directly related to, so that’s good for them, which he immediately followed with his support of ALL women matter, in the same tweet. These were responses to Griffin tweeting, “Black Men [sic] do support Black women. Stop tearing down and blaming black [sic] men for everything under the sun when it comes to Black women,” unprovoked.

    Griffin has never made a post specifically about his support of Black women he is not related to, but has made several posts that would make the “Got Milk,” campaign proud. Wait, he did make a post about A’ja Wilson being the best player in the WNBA, but made sure to highlight that Caitlin Clark was the reason people were watching. 

    Interracial dating is not going anywhere and is completely legal. The nuance of human interactions is very real, but Griffin is free to date whom he chooses, and it is doubtful with a hairline that looks like it was drawn by a map maker, if Black women were ever flocking to be on his arm, anyway. It’s quite likely that with the level of intense cornball he exudes, he was probably not found attractive by Black girls growing up and and now seeks the approval of white women to feel attractive; it is doubtful that white women saw the attractiveness in his face less than they did in his finances, but if that’s what makes him happy, more power to him.

    Much to his chagrin, and despite the support from white people who view him as one of the good ones, Robert Griffin III is not a victim here.

    He was not attacked, and if he is obsessing over whiteness online, he is surely doing it in his home. If he considers supporting his four biracial daughters as support of Black women, he is clearly not fit to have the conversation. If he is okay with repeating misogynoiristic rhetoric, he is surely not having conversations with his white wife about how poorly Black women are treated. Ryan Clark even stated that Griffin’s wife was nice, but that does not stop Griffin’s fetishism from needing to be called out, especially when he goes on the same internet and specifically praises her whiteness.

    The irony in all of this is Griffin feeling attacked for his gross obsession, but not understanding how he attacked Reese for defending herself.

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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