Seeing Racism In All The Wrong Places

Last year, LSU’s Lady Tigers beat Iowa to win the Women’s NCAA basketball title. Not interested? Am I already boring you? I don’t blame you. I too have no interest in women’s basketball. However, those two events are backdrops for a cultural divide. In the closing seconds of the 2023 matchup, with the game no longer in doubt, LSU forward, ironically named ‘Angel’ Reese, taunted Iowa’s star point guard Caitlyn Clark. Reese looked at Clark and waved the palm of her hand in front of her face. The “You Can’t See Me!” taunt was an invention of WWE wrestler John Cena. When Reese was taunting Clark, LSU was ahead by 20. The game was no longer in doubt but Reese wanted to mock Clark before the game clock went to zeros.  In response, Clark shrugged. Jill Biden was in attendance. Dr. Jill, no stranger to putting her foot in her mouth suggested that both Iowa and LSU should be invited to the White House. “[Iowa] played such a good game,” said Jill.  Jill’s “everyone gets a trophy” suggestion was just dumb. The White House quickly walked it back. Too late for Reese. In response, Reese said:

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I don’t accept the apology because of, you said what you said. I said what I said. And like, you can’t go back on certain things that you say,” “I mean, you felt like they should’ve came because of sportsmanship, right?” “[Iowa] can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas. We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”

Reese wasn’t being subtle. She wanted to party with the Black former president and Michelle, not old white Joe and dumb Dr. Jill. And, Reese misrepresented what Jill Biden said. Jill Biden never mentioned “sportsmanship”. Jill just wanted to give everyone a participation trophy. But when you see everything through a racial prism everything is cast in the ugly light of racism. The 2024 tournament started with LSU’s Lady Tigers, as the reigning champions. Reese wore a chip on her shoulder and a literal crown on her head. During every warmup, Reese wore a giant crown. And, during every game, she trash-talked and belittled opponents. She reveled in her “bad-girl” persona. In the final seconds of a game against Middle Tennessee, Reese was the beneficiary of a ridiculous call that fouled out  Anastasiia Boldyreva. As Boldyreva left in tears, Reese mocked her by waving goodbye. Not once. Twice.  If you’re a trash talker you best back up the swagger and not get bent out of shape when everyone notices. Before LSU’s Sweet 16 matchup against UCLA, The LA Times UCLA beat writer Ben Bolch wrote an opinion piece that contrasted the obvious. The original lead labeled LSU as “Dirty Debutantes”. Bolch wrote that UCLA’s image is reflected by their lowkey “sweetheart” coach and LSU’s loudmouth coach Kim Mulkey projected the opposite. The article focused on LSU’s coach who spent years cultivating an image as a screamer and “my way or the highway” style. Bolch also noted that Angel Reese had a history of being a less-than-gracious trash-talker. Once published, the proverbial poop hit the fan. Shaun Harper, a professional race-baiter and Forbes contributing muckraker wrote an article labeling the column “racist”.  Harper, a man who calls himself: A diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) expert, wrote an article asserting that Bolch’s column was dripping with racism. He wrote:

 Bolch’s article upholds longstanding racist tropes about Black people being thuggish; people from predominantly Black contexts being prone to misbehavior; and Black women, in particular, being threats to innocent, defenseless white women.

 Harper wasn’t finished building strawmen. Harper snarked that Westwood (where UCLA is located) is “90% white”. What he didn’t add to his nonsense scare facts is that Westwood has a population of 1,300 people, with a medium income of $41,000. 1,300 people could fit into a High School gym. An income of $41,000 in LA will get you two roommates and a hotplate. Harper did a head count and compared how many blacks played for LSU and how many played for UCLA. LSU had four more. Harper continued:

This is what makes Bolch’s comparison of the two squads especially problematic – the predominantly Black team is comprised of villains, the one with fewer Black women is made up of angelic sweethearts.

Although Harper admits that “Dirty Debutantes” isn’t by itself a “racist” term – once it is directed at a black person, it becomes a racist trope. How? Simple. Harper counted heads. More blacks play for LSU. Bolch is a “racist” because 4 more blacks are on the LSU roster. Leave it to a DEI “expert” to count heads. Harper isn’t new to defending Reese’s bad behaviour. Last year he did the very same thing. Calling out Reese for acting like a jerk is “racist”. If you see a pattern you aren’t wrong. Harper is a one-trick pony. Any criticism of  black person is automatic racism. Bolch made two mistakes. He relied on someone at the LA Times to edit his column and he prostrated himself to the woke mobsters and apologized. As to the former, the LA Times is a shell of what it once was. The Sports section still has compete writers but it is now headed by a terrible editor. According to my sources, she foists blame on everyone but herself. Sure, Bolch wrote the term “Dirty Debutantes” but editors are supposed to be a buffer between what we as writers say and what people read. Editors are supposed to edit. “Dirty Debutantes should never have made it past the first edit. A ‘Debutante’ is a newcomer. LSU was the returning champs. That term making it to publication, is 100% on the editor, not Bolch. Using the term “evil” in the original piece wasn’t needed. That’s it. The rest of the column was 100% fact-based commentary. Fact: LSU’s coach is a loudmouth jerk Fact: Angel Reese is a trash-talking jerk. Fact: Race didn’t make Reese a jerk, Reese made Reese a jerk. Bolch’s final mistake was apologizing and groveling to the mobsters. Yes, to keep his job he had to apologize but that won’t save him. The LA Times and his editor will find a way to throw him under the bus. He’s dead man walking. Here is his apology:

It has taken me two days to write this apology because I wanted to be as thoughtful as possible in my response to the situation I have created. These are words I have not been asked to write by anyone at my paper, but they need to be expressed so that I can own up to my mistake. Words matter. As a journalist, no one should know this more than me. Yet I have failed miserably in my choice of words. In my column previewing the LSU-UCLA women’s basketball game, I tried to be clever in my phrasing about one team’s attitude, using alliteration while not understanding the deeply offensive connotation or associations. I also used metaphors that were not appropriate. Our society has had to deal with so many layers of misogyny, racism and negativity that I can now see why the words I used were wrong. It was not my intent to be hurtful, but I now understand that I terribly missed the mark. I sincerely apologize to the LSU and UCLA basketball teams and to our readers. UCLA, a school I have covered for nearly a decade, champions diversity and is known as a leader in inclusivity. However, I have not upheld that standard in what I wrote and I will do much better. I am deeply sorry.

The 2024 matchup between Iowa and LSU had a different outcome. LSU was never in the game. Iowa won handily. Reese wasted no time turning herself into a victim. She said. Death threats? I’m not buy it.

"I just try to stay strong... I've been attacked so many times. Death threats, I've been sexualized, I've been threatened... I'm still human. All this has happened since I won the national championship & I haven't been happy since then."

- Angel Reesepic.twitter.com/fIvQWtefnx

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 2, 2024

What you didn’t hear about was Clark taunting Reese at the end of the game. Why not? Because it didn’t happen. Clark was a gracious winner. Reese – a spoiled loser. On Friday night, Caitlin Clark and her Iowa teammates made it to the finals, but not without controversy. With 3.9 seconds on the clock, a referee called an illegal screen on UConn player Aaliyah Edwards. Iowa’s Gabbie Marshall got the call.  “Most” observers thought it was a bad call. The tape clearly shows Edwards moving her feet, and pushing her arm out. Sorry basketball experts, that is an illegal screen. After the game, Edwards didn’t complain. UConn’s star player Paige Bueckers didn’t complain. In fact she said that games aren’t decided by one play or one call. But, I counted heads for Shaun Harper. Edwards is black. Bueckers and the ref who made the call are both…white. Alert Shaun Harper, he has a race-baiting column to write!