Here’s the thing about yesterday’s game. At first, I didn’t think about race at all because I had Iowa on the moneyline and I was just upset I lost money. But once all the tweets and social posts started appearing after the game and it became a thing, you couldn’t help but think about race. Like anyone who grew up in Chicago in the 70’s and 80’s, I have an interesting perspective on the matter.
In grammar school, I was a member of an all-white, all-Jewish team that went to Hyde Park and South Shore and played Harvard St. George where the black parents thought the rich white Jews were getting preferential treatment from the refs. Did we actually get preferential treatment? I want to say no but I honestly can’t remember and it wouldn’t be shocking given the time period.
Then in High School, I was on an all black team that felt like it was getting the worse end of every call whenever we played a white suburban school in the York Holiday Tournament or anywhere outside the city. Was that the case? Did we get too many fouls called on us because the majority of our team was black and the suburban refs called fouls that weren’t really fouls? Again, I don’t recall specific calls or moments but I do know in general it was a thing and our coach would often say, ‘These refs don’t like us coming up here and beating their little suburban white team.”
Note: There was one game I do remember in this regard. When we played Jacksonville my Sr. year, future Illini Andy Kaufman scored 40 on us and I’ll bet about 25 of those were on free throws! In that game, it seemed like every time he touched the ball it was a foul. in Jacksonville, Illinois, in Andy Kaufman’s gym, the racism was real!
When I got to college, race didn’t seem to matter as much because we were D3 and we knew we weren’t playing for professional contracts. When you play for the love of the game, with little on the line, the flame on the racial stove tends to get turned way down.
Since my playing days ended, I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve gone to a high school game over the years –whether it’s the Proviso West tourney in Chicago or the Les Schwab here in Oregon – where black and white parents both think they’re being discriminated against by the refs based on the opponent.
Whether it’s the refs or the conduct of the players on the floor, America’s reaction is pretty much a microcosm of race relations in America. So when people called out Angel Reese for her ‘You Can’t See Me’ taunt but said nothing when Caitlin Clark did the exact same thing two games earlier against Louisville, it felt more than a little racist. That’s not to say it wasn’t poor sportswomanship and shouldn’t have been called out. But it’s gotta be equally called out against Clark and it wasn’t. Or maybe we don’t have to call anything out. Maybe it was just two women trash talking and having fun and as ESPN’s Holly Rowe stated, “Unapologetically confident young women should be celebrated NOT hated… get used to it.”
After reading all the backlash, I mostly felt the same way I felt all those years of playing and being in the stands in gyms across the country when things got so heated parents were ready to fight. I felt sad. Sad that people still feel so alienated from one another that it’s still an “us” vs “them” mentality. Sad that as often as sports journalists claim that sports is the ultimate equalizer, it sure doesn’t seem like it sometimes. And ultimately sad that even as we try to make progress, until we truly change the many issues plaguing our country that impact race relations: housing, jobs, poverty, homelessness, and education, among others, the situation isn’t likely to change much anytime soon. Oh, and really, really sad that I bought into the false narrative that Clark was revolutionary and Iowa was the team of destiny and lost a bunch on Iowa on the money line. It was truly LSU’s night, in more ways than one.
3 responses to “Clark, Reese and Race in America”
Angel Reese followed Clark around, shaking those five fingers, taunting her, demonstrating that she won the ring and Clark didn’t…Clark’s win over Louisville had nothing to do with a ring, and wasn’t about taunting as Reese’s accusation..Reese has continued her wrongly contrived accusations…And her constant harassing and activity on the internet is way too much and prolonged racial comments too much and too long…
Good article, with one exception. Clark is revolutionary.
Not sure if I should leave this here, or send directly to you – but I had the exact same thoughts. So many people on the internet got it wrong by criticizing Reese and forgetting that Clark did the same thing. And for as much as I think ESPN are a bunch of woke race-baiters, I also saw Holly Rowe’s quote and did the slow clap – as in, “Yes! That’s exactly what should be happening. Thank you.” The real issue here is the internet. Too many idiots that have never been on an all-white team playing an all-black team (or vice verse) have a platform to inject their uninformed opinion on sports. I think sports are inherently NOT racist 99% of the time – at least at the player level. Talent wins. The aggressor wins. Hard work pays off. Again – 99% of the time. So the last thing Reese or Clark were thinking – was race. They were thinking – “I got you bitch”. It was only the talking heads that brought race into it (and the South Carolina coach, but that’s a different comment for a different day). And as far as Andy Kaufman goes, he was the ultimate pump fake king. All he did was get fouled and make FTs. That was his game his whole HS and college career. Yea it was in his gym, and yea you were the all black team with a dash of Jewish – and yea your coach was correct in saying what he said after those kinds of game. But I bet as soon as the emotion of losing wore off – he proceeded to point out all the tactical reasons why you lost the game. The internet sucks.