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    They Are Not Fans of Caitlin Clark, They Are Fans of Misogynoir

    By 05 Mins Read
    MN Lynx vs Indiana Fever, on July 14th, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (photo credit John McClellan)

    Angel Reese tweets a video of her and her mentor, Shaquille O’Neal, horsing around at a basketball court. She jokes that if Shaq, who is notorious for missing free throws, makes the shot, then she owes him $100,000. Xitter user @ImKindofTrash, who clearly is at least telling the truth about himself, quotes the video with the caption, “Just lost 2 years salary that quick.”

    One hundred and thirty-four likes later, it is hard not to conclude that some people just don’t like Angel Reese, which it’s sports, that comes with the territory. 

    There are many male athletes at the professional level who are not liked as well, but to say the weapons aimed at the targets are the same, is a lie. Many Black male athletes have and continue to experience racism; even the most beloved athletes endure this, but they do not have to endure the sexism that Reese does, and it seems that many fans of the WBNA are only fans for the opportunity to slight and harass Black women, in the name of Caitlin Clark. It is no secret that Clark draws a large crowd; she is a phenom, a generational talent even and she is white.

    Racism does not go away on the court, and it definitely does not stop for the viewer at home. In a world that views Black people’s greatest capabilities under the lens of sports or entertainment—Caitlin Clark is Eminem—a white person in a mostly Black arena, literally and figuratively. Sure, they are both absolutely great at what they do, but to the crazed white stan, what matters most is that they dominate n*ggas. They are racism’s wettest dreams. 

    According to Google Trends, the number one region for Google searches of Reese’s name is Iowa as of today, October 3, 2024. She does not, nor has she ever been, associated with the state. Clark, who plays for the Indian Fever, lost the 2022 championship to the LSU team led by Reese while being the star player for Iowa.

    I guess they haven’t forgotten. 

    While white WNBA veteran and five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird, on the podcast she shares with partner and soccer star Megan Rapinoe, A Touch More, stated there has always been an issue of racism in the WBNA and that Clark did not bring the racism to the league. However, she feels that many of Caitlin’s fans are not actually fans of her but rather use her as a pawn to push their racist agendas. Alyssa Thomas, a Black player of the Connecticut Sun (the team that recently knocked Clarks’s Fever out of the playoffs), stated this was the first time in her 11-year career that she experienced racism from Fever fans. At that same game, a white woman wore a homemade shirt which looked like it was constructed from felt and lack of self-awareness, which read, “BAN NAILS,” all while sporting cartoonishly long fake FAKE nails made out of what looked to be either construction paper or some foil that may have fallen off her tin foil hat.

    In a league that is 60% Black, we know that a racist b*tch is going to surely love a racist dog whistle; more importantly, that’s not just racism; that’s misogynoir. Instagram shows more examples of nasty comments. While Clark and Reese have both been hit with flagrant fouls throughout the season (Clark’s five to Reese’s one), a look at their pages, as well as Dijonai Carrington’s page (who was recently poked Clark in the eye but did not receive a flagrant foul), tell a story of two Americas. Reese and Carrington’s pages are littered with harassing comments, including about their looks (which have absolutely nothing to do with basketball) and numerous mentions of Clark (who is not pictured on their pages).

    Black women cannot even have selfies to themselves. 

    While previously accused of remaining fairly silent about the harassment done in her name, Clark recently said, “Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, disrespectful, or hurtful comments and threats.”

    While writing this, it was announced that Clark is the WNBA’s 2024 Rookie of the Year and the comments under the Indiana Fever thread with the announcement are filled with vitriol about Reese. While the comments under the WNBA’s thread are a bit sparser, they still exist and most of them surround the anger that she received even one vote.

    To them, her win is not good enough to stand on its own merits, it has to stand on Reese’s too.

    Xitter user “GrierGotaGO GGG,” and whose @ involves a slur that will not be written out, sums up the sentiment succinctly with, “All the sh*t us white men did to protect CC from low iq, discussing black savages and she repays us by supporting Kamala. F*ck CC and fuck the WNBA nobody wants to see these hoes play anyway[.]” Yikes. 

    Little known history fact: DYK that the KKK was started in order to protect the purity of white women?

    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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