Caitlin Clark Is Going To Be Seriously Injured If Racial Hostility Continues | Bobby Burack

At this rate, Caitlin Clark is going to be seriously injured on the basketball court.

For months, the media has told us that Clark is the beneficiary of white and straight privilege. Sunny Hostin of "The View" also recently attributed Clark's popularity to "tall and pretty" privilege.

Notable figures and outlets who've stoked the "privilege" flame include, but are not limited to, Jemele Hill, the other mean girls on "The View," the New York Times, USA Today, Sheryl Swoopes, and Becky Hammon.

"We would all be very naive if we didn’t say race and her sexuality played a role in [Clark's] popularity," Hill bitterly recently told the LA Times.

Already, society preaches to black Americans that white people are their enemies and their oppressors. According to a recent Gallup poll, most black people believe that.

White derangement syndrome is real – particularly when involved in historically black spaces, like professional basketball.

And that's the reality Caitlin Clark faces. 

Clark is the biggest star in women's basketball, where she competes against mostly black women who are told Clark is only more popular than them because of her skin color.

The rabble-rousers programmed black players to dislike her. They succeeded.

A'ja Wilson and Angel Reese have jabbed Clark verbally on social media and in the media for weeks. And the animus toward Clark turned physical on Saturday when Clark's Indiana Fever faced the Chicago Sky. 

First, Chennedy Carter from the Sky appeared to call Clark a "bitch" and then slammed into her:

Reese, a pampered brat, cheered and hugged Carter after shoving Clark:

Later in the game, Reese elbowed Clark in the upper body and appeared to utter a slur at her when she hit the floor:

No one, on either team, came to Clark's defense. 

After the game, Carter said she would not speak about Clark and then liked several posts on X telling her to shove Clark harder the next time:

White privilege, huh? Attractive privilege, hey?

We warned last month that Clark could be the subject of cheap shots and gratuitously physical play after noting an ominous trend in the NBA. While less pronounced, NBA players have shown similar hostility toward the surge of successful white players.

‘Take Out’ White Players

In December, former NBA guard and thug Gilbert Arenas encouraged black players on his podcast to "take out" white players on the court because they were coming for "our league."

Since then, Pistons' forward Isaiah Stewart punched Suns' forward Drew Eubanks during a confrontation before the teams' match-up in February, Draymond Green struck Jusuf Nurkic in the face, and stomped on the chest of Kings' guard Domantas Sabonis during a game.

Oddly, none of that should surprise anyone. History taught us long ago that when society inflames racial hatred, violence usually follows.

In a normal society, the WNBA, media, players, and coaches would collectively condemn what happened to Clark on the court on Saturday. Unfortunately, they won't. Those groups are too afraid of the mob to ever dare stand up for the little white girl from Iowa – especially the media.

Initially, ESPN completely ignored the Chennedy Carter-Caitlin Clark foul and fallout when providing postgame coverage of the Fever-Sky matchup. The network waited until late, when fewer viewers were watching, to mention the shove.

Chiney Ogwumike and Elle Duncan (best known for bullying Sage Steele over her "blackness") are the respective analyst and host of ESPN's main WNBA studio program, and you'd think they were the praetorian guard of the "black and brown women" in the W. 

Ogwumike and Duncan spent last week threatening anyone who criticizes the women who "hate on" Clark with the word racist.

Duncan responded to Charles Barkley and LeBron James defending Clark against "petty" WNBA players by asking, "Who are these girls that are hating on Caitlin Clark?" – as if she wasn't aware of the headlines.

"You’re just new in this space, and so while you’re new before you put your f***ing feet on my couch, look around," Duncan then told Bomani Jones. "Get the lay of the land; get to know it a little bit before you just jump in and continue to fan flames of divisiveness that frankly target black and brown women. It’s not okay."

Got that?

The black and brown women denigrating and shoving Clark are not the problem. The people who notice are. (At least Duncan isn't advocating for teachers to talk about sex changes with third-graders anymore…)

Ogwumike, who used to play in the WNBA, shared Duncan's message, also claiming "no one hates on Clark."

"Charles and Inside the NBA team are the GOATs of the industry, so respectfully I’ll offer my perspective with love," Ogwumike posted on X last week. "Every WNBA player I know supports this rookie class and are grateful for the spotlight & money that Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and co. are bringing to the W!"

Ogwumike is smart. She watches the WNBA closely. She knows she's lying to her followers. 

OutKick asked both Duncan and Ogwumike about their defense of WNBA players following what happened to Clark on Saturday. We sent them the following email:

Chiney and Elle, 

I am writing a story about how you two -- among a few others -- defended the WNBA players against the narrative that they "hate on" Caitlin Clark. 

Elle, you even said it was racist to claim they do.

Well, today, as I am sure you both saw, Chennedy Carter shoved Clark for no reason, called her a "bitch," and refused to comment after saying she would not speak about Clark.

We also saw Reese cheer that a player slammed into Clark on a clearly dirty play.

Do you both stand by your comments that there is no jealousy toward Clark? Do you two disagree that the jealousy is rooted in racial animus? Elle, do you still think it's racist to say Reece has an issue with Clark?

Neither woman responded. We will be sure to update this article if they do. 

We hope they do – not to make fun of them but for them to acknowledge publicly that they are part of the problem.

How women of color in the WNBA feel about Clark is a symptom. A racialized culture is the cause.

Not only is reducing Caitlin Clark down to her skin color and sexuality immoral, but it's also willfully disingenuous. 

We recently researched the history of professional sports in America over the past 30 years to see if any trends or data points suggest white privilege contributes to popularity. 

In most cases, star players share three commonalities. Race is not one of them. Greatness, personality, and a riveting style of play are. Caitlin Clark checks off all three boxes.

Perhaps that's why "The View" and Jemele Hill never cite any examples when attributing Clark's popularity to race. There aren't any.

'A Media-Generated Lie'

The media cast Clark as the Great White Hope. Yet the narrative is not consistent with reality or the history of sports. It's a media-generated lie.

We understand there are political points to score in propagating myths about Clark's popularity and success. However, young black women on the court appear to believe it and detest Clark for it.

As a result, a once-in-a-generation phenomenon with the star power to mainstream women's basketball has to fear for her physical safety on the court.

What's happening to Clark underscores a much larger trend in America, in that the demand for racism in America vastly outstrips the supply. 

Unfortunately, bad-faith actors do not accept that. They feed off a racially divided nation. 

Of course, shoving and kicking people on the court is not akin to, well, burning cities and shooting people in the name of BLM. Still, someone will seriously injure Clark if the racial animus toward her continues.