Two issues occurred final weekend that piqued this non-sports-fanatic’s curiosity.
First, the Louisiana State College (LSU) girls’s basketball workforce clinched a historic nationwide championship win, which is dope as a result of my pops is a Louisiana-born boy whose huge sister lives up the street in Baton Rouge. And my niece as soon as performed for that very same workforce.
The second factor was LSU small ahead Angel Reese, and the explanation she’s dominating headlines and Twitter traits that, sadly, don't have anything to do with the Tigers’ win.
In the course of the fourth quarter of Sunday’s championship sport in opposition to the Iowa Hawkeyes, Reese made a hand gesture pointing at her ring finger directed towards Caitlyn Clark, the Hawkeyes level guard whose phenom standing has singlehandedly introduced extra consideration to girls’s faculty basketball than its skilled shortly.
The “you'll be able to’t see me” hand gesture, originated by rapper Tony Yayo and was later popularized by WWE star John Cena, was utilized by Clark earlier within the match. Reese then pointed to her ring finger in a bout of prescient, nonverbal trash-talking, indicating that she was going residence with that championship ring. No bodily contact or obscene gestures — simply good old school taunting that their male friends have been doing since sports activities had been sports activities.
Sadly, that didn’t cease the unwashed Twitter denizens from fomenting their scorching, musty takes. Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy referred to as Reese a “classless piece of shit.” Keith Olbermann, who's a full 43 years older than Reese, referred to as Reese a “fucking fool.” Which is sort of a porcupine calling a rose bush “spiny.” (He has since “apologized,” if you wish to name it that.)
Little question there’s the patriarchal double normal at play concerning many people’ perception that girls in sports activities ought to simply shut up and dribble. However there’s additionally that painfully apparent sentiment that Black girls in sports activities are scrutinized greater than their white counterparts.
Our doubtful historical past of putting a magnifying glass over profitable Black girls athletes in a fashion we don’t reserve for others dates again to the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, who smashed so many monitor and discipline information within the late Eighties— and did so with model — that she merely needed to be doping, although she by no means examined optimistic.
Luckily for her, FloJo didn’t should cope with social media scorching takes. Nevertheless, when Serena Williams, arguably the best tennis participant of all time, broke a racket out of frustration within the 2018 U.S. Open finals in opposition to Naomi Osaka, it was open season on her in a fashion that advised she didn’t need to be the very best. Then, after all, there’s additionally that ridiculously offensive cartoon with Williams wanting like a linebacker golliwog.
When monitor and discipline sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, who made headlines in 2021 for kicking ass, was quickly sidelined after testing optimistic for hashish, Twitter was a full-blown mess of a (very thinly) coded racist language that advised that she didn’t deserve the accolades she earned justly. Her lengthy weave, huge eyelashes and tattoos had been weaponized in opposition to her.
In distinction, Clark, basketball’s Nice White Hope, has additionally made the Cena gesture in competitors, and nobody bats a watch. Her aggressive nature and trash speak are so pervasive that ESPN minimize a “enjoyable” video. Think about, if you'll, the same video about Reese in a world the place Black “aggression” comes off as a risk to everybody.
(Additionally, think about Jill Biden extending a White Home invite to the dropping workforce if the Tigers had been that workforce.)
The irony of my collaborating on this din apart, headlines shouldn’t give attention to Reese’s innocuous hand gesture however on the truth that NCAA girls’s basketball is breaking information and that extra individuals cared about Sunday’s sport than something taking place on the boys’ facet throughout March Insanity. It issues excess of the Tigers-Hawkeyes matchup — during which we obtained to see the very best gamers in a league go head up — is a sports activities fan’s moist dream.
However, as a result of Twitter does what it does, everybody wished to know what Reese considered the criticism of her gesture throughout a postgame convention. And he or she let everybody know precisely what time it's.
“All yr, I used to be critiqued for who I used to be. I don’t match the narrative,” she stated. “I don’t match the field that y’all need me to be in. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. Y’all instructed me that each one yr. However when different individuals do it, and y’all don’t say nothing.
“So, that is for the ladies that appear to be me. For people who need to converse up for what they imagine in. It’s unapologetically you. And that’s what I did it for tonight. It was larger than me tonight. And Twitter goes to enter a rage each time.”
Clark may’ve been petty about Reese’s taunts and joined the parade of criticism, however her pre-game convention statements counsel that she acknowledges that folks must take away the sticks from their nether areas and acknowledge that (gasp!) girls athletes can do what the lads have been doing for years.
“Greater than something, Individuals are beginning to perceive that girls can play with pleasure and fervour and a hearth about themselves,” Clark stated. “That’s what’s enjoyable… that’s what individuals wanna see. However you permit it on the courtroom. If you step off, you’re mates… you assist each other.”
Hear that, Olbermann and all the opposite stodgy previous white males bitching about “professionalism?” These two gifted younger women, one barely sufficiently old to drink legally, are education all of you on how this athletics factor works. Listen.
Post a Comment