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
