On Sunday, LSU won their first national championship. The LSU Tigers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA women’s championship. It was a huge moment for LSU and for women’s basketball and women’s sports in general. Throughout March Madness, the women’s games had been getting more attention, more heat, more commentary, bigger ratings and more social media engagement. Then, during the final, every white man decided to show their ass and expose how deeply they hate Black women, so it’s not even a basketball story anymore.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark – a young white woman – had done John Cena’s “you can’t see me” hand wave in front of her face during several games. Men and women have mimicked Cena’s gesture for years – it’s a simple but effective way to trash talk without saying a word. During the final, LSU’s Angel Reese – a young Black woman – did the same gesture TO Caitlin Clark. When Clark did it, she was widely applauded and cheered. When Reese did it to Clark, suddenly she was “classless” and “ghetto.” Not only that, when it was clear that LSU were just seconds away from collecting their championship, Reese pointed to her finger (as in, I’m about to get the championship ring).
Doesn't matter the gender, the sport, the background – you're seconds away from a championship and you do something like this and overshadow all the good. Mindless, classless, and what kind of coach does this team have?
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 2, 2023
Yeah. I truly can’t believe this is still the misogynoir double-standard people are employing in the year of our lord Beyonce 2023. Like, are these white folks not f–king tired? Do they not hear themselves? Reese took the criticism in stride – and I hate that she had to – telling journalists post-game that:
“I had a moment at the end of the game. I was in my bag. I was in the moment….All year, I was critiqued about who I was. The narrative — I don’t fit the narrative. I don’t fit into the box that y’all want me to be in. ‘I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto.’ Y’all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me, that’s gonna speak on for what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you. And that’s what I did it for tonight. This was bigger than me tonight. Twitter is gonna go on a rage every time. And I’m happy. I feel like I’ve helped grow women’s basketball this year.”
She absolutely did help grow women’s basketball. She was absolutely a trash-talking (or trash-gesturing) icon. It’s a SPORT. It’s a GAME. Women can have fun and gesture and trash-talk just like the guys. The racist and sexist commentary on this was bonkers.
If it wasn’t “classless” when Caitlin Clark did it, don’t call it classless when Angel Reese does it. Let the women compete, it’s sports!! pic.twitter.com/lJpS1NId68
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) April 2, 2023
If you didn’t say it was classless when Caitlin Clark did it to her opponents then don’t say it about Angel Reese either. https://t.co/5S8P6mvhhx
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 2, 2023
This is classless. Angel Reese is only 20, so she’s still young, but taunting Caitlin Clark like this shows a pure lack of class.
Win with class, lose with class, play with class.
Clark’s mom and dad can be proud that her daughter ignored the taunting. They raised her right. pic.twitter.com/HQyVFuyJIw
— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) April 2, 2023
Part of the reason I liked watching Caitlin play was because she was talking shit. Anybody that ignored that just to play victim right now is corny. Turnabout is fair play.
— Rod (@rodimusprime) April 2, 2023
"I'm too hood, I'm too ghetto. Y'all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y'all don't say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me."
Angel Reese is unapologetically her 👏 @Reese10Angel pic.twitter.com/9cuCWwayhA
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 2, 2023
Photo courtesy of Instagram.
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