After the Connecticut Sun defeated Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night, knocking the rookie and her teammates out of the WNBA playoffs, Alyssa Thomas wanted to speak. The All-Star forward called out the hate that Sun players have faced from sections of the Fever fanbase, saying the racist abuse she has witnessed was unprecedented in her 11-year career.
“Basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don’t want fans that are going to degrade us and call us racial names,” she said. “Something needs to be done, whether it’s them checking their fans or this league checking, there’s no time for it any more.”
Thomas is far from alone. Angel Reese, who many of Clark’s fans paint as a villain due to the pair’s on-court rivalry, has spoken about similar issues.
“Caitlin is an amazing player and I’ve always thought she’s an amazing player,” Reese said on her podcast. “We’ve been playing each other since high school, there’s never been beef. We’ve talked trash to each other in AAU. [Her fans] ride for her and I respect that, but sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it – and I don’t believe she stands on any of that.”
It’s no secret that many of Clark’s fans – or people who say they are her fans – claim they are defending her before spewing racist abuse against players in a league where the majority of players are Black. Clark herself has rejected such behavior, telling reporters: “People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” Clark said. “Treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect, I think, it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do.”
Clark made those comments in June, but the racism among elements of her fanbase go back to her time in college. Which is to say, this is nothing new. And yet important figures around the league have not done enough to quell it.
First up is the league itself. The WNBA has been fully aware of the racism and vitriol that has been running rampant among fans well before Thomas’s comments, and the league issued a statement decrying such abuse on Wednesday.
And yet, saying the league has handled the situation well would be a little too kind. A few weeks ago WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, was asked about the “darker” tone taken by some of the league’s fanbase, particularly when it came to racist and homophobic abuse, and her comment raised a quite a few eyebrows.
Engelbert seemed more interested in how that tone affected business and the league’s bottom line than the pain inflicted on players.
“[The Clark-Reese] is a little of that Bird-Magic moment if you recall from 1979, when those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one Black. And so we have that moment with these two,” she said. “But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”
Engelbert later admitted she had “missed the mark” with her comments and wrote a letter of apology to the league’s players. But it was disturbing that someone who should be helping to protect players didn’t get it right the first time and had to make that apology in the first place.
As for the Fever, have they done everything they could do stop such behavior? Their coach, Christie Sides, condemned online abuse after Wednesday’s game, but there was no official statement from the team. Sure, many of those spewing abuse online do not claim to be Fever fans – and probably aren’t – but that shouldn’t stop the team from being clear where it stands. They Fever are certainly happy to welcome the hike in attendance and income that Clark brings. So why not fight the negative elements that their star player attracts?
Unfortunately, it’s not only fans who are weaponizing Clark. It appears as though every time Clark gets fouled, certain members of the media begin to push the narrative that she is a white damsel in distress being beaten up by Black opponents. Whether they truly believe this or not, it sure helps push up clicks. (Who can forget the Chicago Sun-Times writer distancing herself from that infamous back page headline last month?)
The @suntimes_sports cover, featuring the Sky, who are on the brink of coming undone as the Fever continue to coalesce, by @anniecostabile. https://t.co/2YxbzFzqQY pic.twitter.com/YSKYjnQsjV
— Sun-Times Sports (@suntimes_sports) August 31, 2024
But it also dredges up a very dark and ugly trope from American history and leads to more abuse for Black players.
Jason Whitlock, a writer with a history of stirring up tension and who has rarely wasted an opportunity to weaponize Clark, is a case in point. Earlier in the Sun-Fever series, Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington inadvertently poked Clark in the face, leaving her with a black eye. “Caitlin Clark ASSAULTED, the WNBA Should SUSPEND DiJonai Carrington,” tweeted Whitlock. He followed it up by writing: “Dijonai Carrington stabbed Caitlin Clark in the eye with a fingernail. It could’ve damaged the career of the WNBA’s meal ticket and the biggest American women’s sports star of all time. ESPN and the WNBA have yet to address this story. Carrington should be suspended.”
Whitlock, who is Black, knows the danger of evoking the image of the delicate white flower in America. Lynchings of Black men were common when mobs somehow believed a white women was in danger. It’s dangerous and journalistically irresponsible for any member of the media to push the false notion that Clark is being threatened by Black players. And the results were as dismal as they were predictable. Those in need of a history lesson need look no further than Rosewood, Emmett Till and Tulsa race massacre that destroyed Black Wall Street.
Social media was filled with hatred towards Carrington. Calls for her to be suspended or kicked out of the league were on the mild end of the spectrum. Carrington later shared an email she received calling her the N-word before the sender said they hoped “someone rapes you and cuts off your head”.
No WNBA player should be subjected to death threats for simply playing a game of basketball. This shouldn’t sit well with anyone no matter what player or team they are rooting for.
So the question is, what can be done to stop this train of hatred? One of the people who tried to calm the storm rather than strengthen it was Clark herself. “[The contact from Carrington] wasn’t intentional by any means,” she said. “Just watch the play.” And just like that, the rhetoric around the foul magically disappeared. The calls for Carrington’s suspension stopped. The fanning of the flames by certain members of the media ceased.
Is it fair to place the responsibility on Caitlin Clark to constantly combat the dangerous attempts to weaponize her when she only wants to play basketball? No. Did she ask to be viewed as a delicate flower who needed protection? No. Did she push the false narrative that big, Black, jealous, violent WNBA players are out to hurt her? No. But that is exactly how she is viewed and treated by many of her fans. That’s the false narrative that has permeated throughout the league for the entire season.
Clark’s condemnation of the racism from elements of her fanbase earlier in the season sadly wasn’t enough. She may have to keep repeating the message, the same way she was able to quash the false notion that she was “assaulted” or “stabbed in the eye” with a simple few words of denial. Yes, thats’s a lot to be placed on a 22-year-old, but with great power comes great responsibility. If her words can stop an angry mob, then staying silent just isn’t an option. She will also need help from her team, the league and the media, because like Alyssa Thomas said on Wednesday, the racism, the death threats, the verbal abuse at the games are all “unacceptable and there is no place for any of it”.
