Sheryl Swoopes Defends Lies About Caitlin Clark, Says 'Black People Can’t Be Racist’

Earlier this month, former WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes tried to diminish Caitlin Clark's quest for the all-time scoring record in NCAA women's basketball history. 

Clark has since broken the record.

Swoopes sought to undermine Clark's legacy with lies and inaccuracies – falsely presenting how many years Clark played collegiate basketball, her age, the age of her opponents, and how many times she shoots per game.

Swoopes performed her bitter tirade about Clark while donning a "Female, Fearless, and Black" T-shirt on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast, where black players recently complained about the rise of successful white Euros.

Dan Dakich, Jason Whitlock, and I questioned if racial animus was at the root of Swoopes' denunciation of Clark, a straight white female basketball player. Swoopes referring to white people as "they" and "them" on social media also presented us with a telling hint.

Sheryl Swoopes reappeared on Arenas' podcast this week, and referenced said criticism. 

"For people to come at me and say that I made those comments [about Clark] because I’m a racist … First of all, black people can’t be racist; but that’s the farthest thing from my mind."

"I grew up in a very small West Texas town — predominantly white. My best childhood friend is white. Went to a predominantly white college. Won a national championship [and] pretty much everyone on the team was white. We’re sisters to this day. That’s not a part of my DNA."

Take Swoopes' supposed friendship with white sisters as you wish. We are still trying to comprehend the other point of her defense: black people can’t be racist.

Oh, no?

That statement is a lie. Black people can be racist. Some black people are racist. As is the case with every other race on this earth.

In fact, much of the resentment from current and former black players toward successful white players is, by definition, racist. Let's review:

Kendrick Perkins arguing that white NBA players cannot win the league MVP without assistance from compromised white voters is a racist view of white players. 

Montrezl Harrell calling Luka Doncic a "bitch ass white boy" on the court is a racist remark. 

ESPN broadcaster Mark Jones sharing blatantly racist tweets about Jokic and his family is, well, racist. 

Swoopes' pal Arenas calling on black players to "take out" white players on the court, as in assault, is also racist. And hateful:

Essentially, Swoopes argued that we should further standardize racism against white people by not defining it as "racist." 

Swoopes is a proponent of Excused Racism, the hypothesis that society must racially discriminate against white people to achieve racial impartiality.

She's wrong.

Racism is defined by actions, words, and views – not the skin color of the subject executing racist actions, words, and views. We ought not to excuse those for promoting overly racial indignation when they are black and their targets are white. 

Sheryl Swoopes is a black woman. Do not let that fact absolve her from accountability.