For the longest time, the WNBA was the Canada of American sports: Boring, weak, and mostly empty.
But thanks to the widespread popularity of rookie Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever guard, the WNBA is becoming popular. But because Caitlin Clark is - gasp - white, this isn't going down too well among the woke crowd.
Because sure, they want the WNBA to be popular, but not if a white player is involved. And this has led woke commentators to spend most of their time finding ways to complain about the woman who has almost single-handedly rescued their entire sport.
Enter Ros Gold-Onwude, a broadcaster for the New York Liberty, who accused Clark of not being "proactive" enough in condemning the racism, sexism, bigotry and "toxic fandom" that she has apparently brought upon the WNBA.
Caitlin has not had a proactive approach around toxic fandom, and what's appropriate for, or something that she celebrates or likes to see in her fan base, or being proactive against any type of hateful discourse around WNBA and its players.
After acknowledging that Clark has actually condemned this sort of behavior when someone has bothered to ask her about it, Gold-Onwude then moved on to her various demands for Clark to join the fight against injustice.
Because nothing says privilege more than demanding that a popular rookie use their hard-earned popularity to promote your agenda.
This is where she has agency, in how loud of an advocate she wants to be, how loud of an ally she wants to be for fellow WNBA players, for her teammates…for the most part are majority black women, a number of people identify as LGBTQ. It's her choice how she wants to participate as someone who is willing to say, ‘I am them and they are me,' and anything nasty is unacceptable … and to do that on her own.
For us to expect a 22-year-old to have the right words to address racial tensions in America, or to have even the right strategy or right strategy…or how her lack of participation could be viewed, that takes a level of education.
Wow.
I'll be interested in seeing how Caitlin uses this offseason to reflect, to get education … and see how she responds this offseason and this next season as far as deciding if and how she wants to participate as an advocate (against) hateful speech.
It's truly amazing how many woke players and ex-players — clearly riddled with jealousy over Clark's ability and popularity — are using their platforms not to elevate Clark or the WNBA, but to shoot her down over petty, vindictive and, yes, racist nonsense.
But then again, don't forget that the W in WNBA does stand for woke.
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