Hailey Van Lith Crushed By Fans After Comments About LSU And Racism: REACTIONS
People aren't overly pleased with Hailey Van Lith's comments about race and the LSU women's basketball team.
The Tigers play Iowa tonight, and it should be a hell of a battle between two great programs. Unfortunately, there's a lot of distractions surrounding the game after the Los Angeles Times published a piece referring to LSU as "dirty debutantes."
Many claimed it was a racial attack, despite the fact debutantes have nothing to do with race. It's a young member of high society. Now, is putting "dirty" in front of the word smart? As I said yesterday, probably not, but again, it doesn't make it about race.
Yet, the talented guard used the article as an opportunity to allege that there is racial biases and people making comments are "racist towards" her LSU "teammates."
Van Lith said the following over the weekend:
"We do have a lot of black women on this team, and unfortunately, that bias does exist still today, and a lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates. I'm in a unique situation where I see with myself, I'll talk trash and I'll get a different reaction than if Angel [Reese] talks trash. I have a duty to my teammates to have their back. Some of the words that were used in that article were very sad and upsetting. Calling us the dirty debutantes, that has nothing to do with sports. That's not motivating. But in my opinion, I know for a fact that people see us differently because we do have a lot of black women on our team who have an attitude and like to talk trash and people feel a way about it. At the end of the day, I'm rocking with them because they don't let that change who they are. They stay true to themselves, and so I'll have their back."
Fans push back on Hailey Van Lith playing the race card.
The comments immediately went viral, and generated a lot of attention. After all, there are a lot of black college basketball players, but only LSU is judged for the racial makeup of their roster, in Van Lith's mind. Of course, that's complete nonsense and can be completely disregarded.
Hailey Van Lith faces backlash for comments about race and LSU players. (Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports)
That's exactly what people did on social media in reaction to her comments. Many people pointed out that the dislike people have for LSU has nothing to do with race. It's more about attitude and actions - which is, of course, 100% justified.
Check out some of the reactions below, and hit me with your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
The people pushing back are 100% correct. The dislike for LSU has nothing to do with race. As many people pointed out, there are plenty of teams across America loaded with black players. Yet, they don't face the criticism LSU does?
Why is that? The answer is shockingly simple. They don't invite it upon themselves. As I wrote Sunday, let's take a quick look at some of LSU's hits over the past year:
- Angel Reese taunted Caitlin Clark in unacceptable fashion.
- Angel Reese threatened to boycott the White House.
- Angel Reese removed from team activities to start this season.
- Angel Reese appeared in graphic and vulgar music video.
- Rival parent starts sniping about Reese's alleged grades.
- Flau'jae Johnson flippantly rapped about 9/11.
- Flau'jae Johnson sparked a melee against South Carolina.
- Kim Mulkey refused to accept responsibility for South Carolina fight.
- Kim Mulkey goes to war with the Washington Post.
The idea that if you dislike the Tigers that you must be racist is such a half-cocked braindead thought that it's hard to believe Van Lith was being serious. Yet, she definitely was.
Not everything is about race. In fact, I would argue very, very few things are actually about race at the end of the day. It's perfectly fine to dislike or like LSU simply based on their conduct on and off the court. Van Lith doesn't realize that, but it's 100% true. Fortunately, plenty of people called her out for her nonsense, and nobody should feel like they need to apologize for doing so. Let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.