This WNBA season has been one for the history books. It’s been by far the most watched season in the league’s 27-year history, and it’s mostly due to the new influx of talent that came in this season — most notably, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink, and Caitlin Clark.
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The most popular and best of the class has been Clark, who dazzled fans with her exceptional playmaking and scoring ability, leading to her being named Rookie of the Year. However, many of her so-called “fans” who claim to have been mesmerized by her on-court skills have simply used her as a tool to spew discriminatory hate speech towards Black and LGBTQ+ women in the league.
It’s something Black fans of the sport have noticed since Clark started breaking records at the University of Iowa.
In June, she was asked about her name being weaponized for racism and misogyny. While she gave a solid answer, she didn’t directly speak to the bigoted fans responsible.
“It’s disappointing…Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect,” Clark said. “The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect.”
But, during her closing press conference, just days after the Fever were eliminated by the Connecticut Sun in the playoffs, Clark gave her most direct answer relating to this topic: “Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” she said. “Those aren’t fans. Those are trolls.”
“It’s a real disservice to the organization, the WNBA… But there are a lot of really good fans, whether they have been fans for 20-plus years or whether they are new fans in our league,” she continued. “I think continuing to uplift this league in a very positive light is the best thing we can do. There are so many great players and so many great teams. There are so many positive storylines that can be written and celebrated and for me, that’s why I became a fan of this league. These people were my idols, I grew up wanting to be like them. So I think continuing to uplift this league in a positive way is the best thing we can do.”
Black folks didn’t need to hear Clark’s message since it’s something we already knew. But it’s important she addressed the racists who acted like they cared about her accomplishments when in fact they didn’t, they just wanted an excuse to be divisive.
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