Angel Reese Doesn’t Owe Any of You Humility.
This country has a deep-seated fear of seeing Black women win.
We see it in the world of movies: Angela Bassett losing out on two major chances to win an Oscar because the Academy decided to award a white actress instead, and the refusal to even nominate Gina Prince-Bythewood for Best Director despite her film The Woman King being one of the most lauded outings of the year.
We see it in the world of music: Beyoncé and Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson and Rihanna having zero Album of the Year Grammys collectively despite giving us some of the most impactful and masterful projects in the history of modern music.
We see it in the world of politics: Stacey Abrams twice losing governor’s races to Brian Kemp, who is deeply unqualified for the position which he now holds.
And now, we are seeing it in the world of college basketball.
The “Great White Hope”™ is a phenomenon commonly discussed in sports. Whenever a white player seems to threaten the dominance of Black players in a particular sport, America — and more broadly, the world — drops everything to rally around them at a breakneck pace. Larry Bird, Rocky Balboa … I mean, it took a massive doping scandal to finally unseat five-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova as the highest-earning female tennis player, despite having gone winless against 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams for over a decade.
Caitlin Clark, the star player for the University of Iowa women’s basketball team, is the latest entry on that list of white athletes. Let me start by stating the obvious: she is incredibly talented. She was posting numbers throughout this year’s NCAA tournament that were astonishing. And she wasn’t shy about it, either. She quickly became known for her in-game recreations of John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” hand gesture, with commentators and fans alike calling her fun, swaggy, and even a breath of fresh air in the sport.
During the semi-final matchup between Iowa and defending champion South Carolina, Iowa’s players repeatedly elected not to defend South Carolina at the three-point line, instead basically daring them to take those shots (of which they only managed to convert a small percentage). In one particular instance, Clark — who was standing inside the key — waved off South Carolina player Raven Johnson as she dribbled beyond the 3-point arc. Clark’s wave off instantly went viral, with scores of social media users and even verified accounts calling her cold (in the complimentary sense, to be clear).
Iowa ended up winning the game and advancing to the final, but many people began to notice the contrast in how Clark was being described in comparison to her Black competitors. Most notably, South Carolina’s Coach Dawn Staley called on the media to be more mindful about how they cover Black female athletes — particularly those on her team, who had been heavily denigrated for their vigorous style of play, their “attitudes” (dog-whistle equivalent of confidence), and even for their height.
Yes, you read that right … a basketball team being criticized for being too tall.
Similar critiques had been made against the predominantly Black team of Louisiana State University, especially their star player Angel Reese. Throughout the season, she and her teammates have faced backlash for everything from how they talk, to how they interact with one another, to their hair and even their eyelashes. Despite these racist critiques and the low odds their team was given of winning a national title this year, they advanced through the tournament all the way to the final, setting up a highly-anticipated matchup against Iowa.
The final was incredibly entertaining, but the result was hardly in doubt: LSU played a near-perfect first half, and held up a comeback attempt from Iowa to win the game by double-digit points. Suddenly, these players who had been doubted, maligned, and attacked all year had come out on top in an undeniable way.
In the closing seconds of the game, Reese approached Clark and mimicked her hand gesture, adding on a finger point to indicate that a championship ring was coming her way. It was a deeply-satisfying UNO-reverse moment for anyone who enjoys the fun intensity that rivalries bring to the game, and it instantly lit up social media … but it quickly became clear that Reese was not receiving the same reaction that Clark did.
Suddenly, the very same people — and let’s be very clear, the very same WHITE people — who had celebrated Clark for the gesture were now calling Reese “unsportsmanlike” and “classless” for doing the same … exact … thing. A certain former commentator on multiple networks from which he was unceremoniously fired even went so far as to call Reese a “f***ing idiot” (although he did not bleep out the expletive). Thousands upon thousands of grown-ass white men were now attacking a young Black female college athlete for doing the same thing for which they had just been uplifting a young white female college athlete.
Not surprising. But disappointing, nonetheless.
Clark has since gone on record to state that Reese’s returning of the favor did not bother or offend her at all. But why would people think it would have? Why were so many white people shocked and appalled that an athlete who talks trash would be subjected to trash talk herself? And why were they so offended by what Reese did, when it had not bothered them just a mere 48 hours before when done by Clark?
We know why.
Excelling at an elite level of sports takes a high level of confidence, and even arrogance at times. And what is wrong with that? If a player can back it up — and Reese very much did, as shown by the SIX double-doubles she posted throughout the tournament which earned her the Most Outstanding Player award — why can’t they express confidence and assurance in themselves, with a little bit of trash talk on the side?
America expects Black female athletes to simultaneously dominate their sports and perform humility in regards to their abilities and achievements. The country demands constant excellence from Black women, but on its own terms as opposed to theirs. People love when Travis Kelce gets on the mic and sings the praises of himself and his team; they adore when players like Caitlin Clark capture their hearts with their “underdog” performances against the big-and-bad SEC; and they even erupt in applause when Tiger Woods throws his arm up after sinking a putt, or when LeBron James takes his shirt off and flexes for the crowd.
But they cringe when Serena Williams shouts “Come on!!!!” after hitting three successive aces. And they rage when Beyoncé tells her haters to bow down. And they clutch their pearls when Angel Reese flexes after leading her team to the first 100-point outing in NCAA finals history.
And yet … Serena continued to dominate despite what anyone had to say, and she did it her way. Beyoncé continues to reign supreme over the music industry, and she does it her way.
And as she herself has expressed, Angel Reese will continue to play hard and will seek to lead LSU to another title next year. And she will do it her way.
If that makes you mad? Deal with it.
