Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese? Did America Win?

Two outstanding athletes with a high drive to win, trash talk, and celebrate big have been pitted against each other—one Black, one White.

Again.

Last year, when these two faced off in the national championship game and Reese and the LSU Tigers won, there was a moment where Angel Reese looked at Clark and pointed to her finger, indicating she was getting a championship ring. She then also did the “you can’t see me” John Cena hand gesture to her a couple times as the game was coming to a close. Man. The comments on ESPN and Bleacher Report were wildly different. Reese was called: classless, ghetto, idiot, disgusting. And those are the “nice” labels.

Rewind back to a few games before this as Iowa is playing against Louisville and Clark makes the same hand gesture in the game. The negative response was not the same. Clark was not slammed, but after the championship game, she was labeled” classy, respectful, a true winner, etc.

They’re both emotional leaders for their teams, both celebrate thematically, both flex to the crowd, and yell at the refs. Why is one vilified and another a hero? What’s the difference?

One is a Black woman, and one is a White woman.

One is “ghetto” when she is loud, and another is “passionate” when she is.

One is a “thug” when she celebrates, and one is a “leader” when she does.

Historically, the double standard has always existed in America. When I attended my high school that was 90% White, and our basketball team had three Black guys on it, when we would play all-black teams, somehow, someway, they were considered thugs, ghetto, and undisciplined because they were loud, had hoods on the back their warmups, and used slang words. On the other hand, we were considered disciplined, respectful, and models for kids and leaders because, culturally, our black experiences were different.

How is this fair?

When protests occurred in 2020 after George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, the majority of Black protests were labeled as “riots.” Why was the storming of the capital, led by White people on Jan 6th, 2021, labeled a protest and not a riot?

How is this fair?

When Black athletes speak out on racism, why are they told to “shut up and dribble.” Why are they only relegated to means of entertainment and pushed away from having a voice in other areas?

Feels like a power trip.

Clark and Reese are not the enemy here. They’ve repeatedly said they enjoy competing and don’t hate each other. The real enemy is Satan, who is using systemic racism to divide. Defined by the Cambridge dictionary as ” policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.”

Clark and Reese are examples of two things. 1. The media loves to CREATE a good story about good versus evil, right versus wrong, and Black vs White. 2. The comments on the post reveal a heart posture of racism, unfairness, inequality, sexism, and double standard behaviors. One comment I can’t shake from my memory after the LSU vs Iowa game on Monday was, ” Thanks for saving America Clark.”

Do you see the problem with this viewpoint? It communicates ‘White is right,” White ideologies, white beliefs, white passions, white people’s love for nationalism, etc. Which then, in return, communicates, “If you don’t act this way or believe this way, you are wrong. As if Clark and Iowa solely represent the ideals and values of a true American? It is as if Reese hasn’t spent the last year giving interviews and sharing her desire to be a model for young girls worldwide to believe in themselves, work hard, be themselves, and not let limitations stop them from succeeding. Are these not unspoken American values? Or does it fall on deaf ears because it comes from the mouth of a Black woman? Is America not winning because 12.3 million viewers watched the LSU vs Iowa game, breaking the records from last year? Are these women not paving the way for the next generation of female athletes to take their sports to the next level, just as those before them did?

In Conclusion, Clark and Reese are not enemies, nor are they the antagonists. Satan is the true enemy who seeks to use any means necessary to divide. Clark and Reese are incredible athletes who have helped take the sport to another level. They both deserve high praise and to be viewed through a lens of equality. We disservice ourselves as Americans and our country when we isolate “true” Americanism to one general set of personalities, expressions, and ideals.

America wins when we celebrate differences, instead of tearing them down.