{"id":13464,"date":"2023-04-05T08:09:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=13464"},"modified":"2023-04-05T08:09:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:09:37","slug":"its-rarely-so-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=13464","title":{"rendered":"it’s rarely so black and white…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every now and then as I attempt to discern a wise angle of a current event, I come across someone who says it better. That\u2019s a fact, friends; sometimes someone else says it better. Today I was playing with college basketball \u2014 women\u2019s college basketball, in fact. But in all reality, let me suggest this has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with how some of our more messy cultural narratives are polluting far more than politics. Hence, in the words of popular IndyStar <\/em>columnist Gregg Doyel, with all bolded emphasis mine, here’s what happened in this year\u2019s final, female college game. I\u2019ll even let Doyel have today\u2019s last word. It’s just that good…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This thing has grown out of control, the culture wars coming to women\u2019s college basketball, where you\u2019ve got a side and they\u2019ve got a side<\/strong> and Caitlin Clark is wrong \u2013 no, Angel Reese is wrong. No, you\u2019re just saying that<\/em> because you\u2019re racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been here before, so many times. Remember that word game we played as kids, called Mad Libs \u2013 seriously \u2013 where you started with a sentence and replaced various words to see what hilarity the new sentence would produce? Let\u2019s try it here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This thing has grown out of control, the culture wars coming to politics, where you\u2019ve got a side and they\u2019ve got a side<\/strong> and Matt Gaetz is wrong \u2013 no, Kamala Harris is wrong. No, you\u2019re just saying that<\/em> because you\u2019re racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again: This thing has grown out of control, the culture wars coming to the criminal justice system, where you\u2019ve got a side and they\u2019ve got a side<\/strong> and indicted former President Donald Trump is wrong \u2013 no, New York City district attorney Alvin Bragg is wrong. No, you\u2019re just saying that<\/em> because you\u2019re racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhausting, all of it. Everybody\u2019s talking and nobody\u2019s listening, but everyone has a role to play so the cycle continues. We\u2019re racing to the bottom, and we\u2019re getting there in a hurry. <\/strong>Apparently this is me playing my role, the idiot who thinks he can calm the situation by explaining the truth: Your side over there, the one seeing black, and their side over there, the one seeing white? Maybe you\u2019re both wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don\u2019t know the topic \u2013 congratulations to you, seriously \u2013 here\u2019s Caitlin Clark v. Angel Reese in a nutshell. Clark plays for Iowa, Reese for LSU. They played for the national championship on Sunday. In the final seconds of LSU\u2019s 102-85 win, Reese taunted Clark by waving her hand in front of her face, pro wrestler John Cena\u2019s trademark gesture that apparently means \u201cyou can\u2019t see me\u201d because \u201cI\u2019m a superhero.\u201d Something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, Reese then followed Clark for several steps, pointing to one of her fingers, where the championship ring will fit nicely. People flipped out. However. Two games ago, in the Elite Eight, Clark taunted Louisville\u2019s Hailey Van Lith with the same gesture. Yes, Clark did the \u201cyou can\u2019t see me\u201d gesture at Van Lith, not at the Iowa bench as many on her side want to believe. The video is clear\u2026 This isn\u2019t hard, people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, maybe this is hard. Because people are so determined to see what they want to see, they miss what\u2019s really there.<\/strong> Seriously, folks on Clark\u2019s side \u2013 I don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s just Iowa fans, because it\u2019s not, and in fact I\u2019ve seen many criticizing her taunting of Van Lith \u2013 are convinced she was doing the gesture to her own bench. It\u2019s not true, but it feels better to say that, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other people, meanwhile, are determined to see Reese\u2019s taunting in a vacuum, everything else be damned. Wait, everything else? What am I talking about? There isn\u2019t anything else, because anything else would suggest gray, and we\u2019re not here for gray. We\u2019re here for black and white. <\/strong>Not sure if that\u2019s an analogy or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest thing is to point a crooked finger and use an explosive word.<\/strong> People defending Angel Reese are “woke.” People defending Caitlin Clark are \u201cracist.” Understanding what has really happened here, and why, requires some work. Most folks, no, they\u2019re not willing to put in the work. So much easier to make our determination by checking one single box.<\/strong> You know the box. Don\u2019t make me say it out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s some background. Louisville\u2019s Van Lith, like Clark a high-volume shooter and talker of trash, was giving Clark the business late in their Elite Eight game, a 97-83 blowout for Iowa. Video catches Clark telling Van Lith (who is white, if it matters): \u201cYou\u2019re down by 15 points. Shut up.\u201d Point for Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s some more background. In Iowa\u2019s next game, the Final Four against South Carolina, Clark is defending Gamecocks guard Raven Johnson on the perimeter. Johnson is open for a 3-pointer \u2013 she was 14-for-58 from distance this season (24.1%) \u2013 and Clark savagely dismisses her with a wave of the hand. Johnson is Black, if it matters. Did it matter, in that moment? No. Clark wasn\u2019t being racist. She wasn\u2019t exactly exuding class, but that was merely one basketball player disrespecting another, color be damned. That\u2019s what I believe anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, point against Clark for a lack of class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now then, Angel Reese \u2013 like Clark, like Van Lith, like Johnson \u2013 has a backstory of her own. Earlier this season, after Reese blocked a shot against Arkansas while holding her shoe and then celebrated passionately, a sequence that had \u201cAngel Reese\u201d trending on Twitter that night, she responded with a tweet of her own: \u201cI’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. I don’t fit the narrative and I’m OK with that. I’m from Baltimore where you hoop outside and talk trash. \u2026 Let’s normalize women showing passion for the game instead of it being \u2018embarrassing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More backstory: For years Reese has attended USA Basketball tryouts with Hailey Van Lith and Raven Johnson. Did they strike up friendships during such a bonding process? Wouldn\u2019t be a surprise. Also, and more importantly, the All-American Reese sees herself \u2013 and correctly so \u2013 as a voice for the relatively voiceless among women\u2019s college basketball players in general, and Black women\u2019s college basketball players in particular. After the Iowa game, asked about her taunting of Clark, Reese said the following: “I don’t fit the narrative. I don’t fit the box that y’all want me to be in. ‘I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto.’ Y’all told me that all year. When other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. This was for the people that look like me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When other people do it\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other people making the \u201cyou can\u2019t see me\u201d gesture, like Caitlin Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people that look like me\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People like Raven Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are the facts. That\u2019s the gray amid the black and white. Bottom line, here\u2019s what I think: Caitlin Clark, the most talented player in every game she ever has and ever will play, could learn how to win with grace. Angel Reese, who decided to give Clark a taste of her own medicine, served up a larger dose than necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s right? Nobody. Who\u2019s wrong? Everybody. And this paragraph is referring to a lot more than two people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every now and then as I attempt to discern a wise angle of a current event, I come across someone who says it better. That\u2019s a fact, friends; sometimes someone else says it better. Today I was playing with college basketball \u2014 women\u2019s college basketball, in fact. But in all reality, let me suggest this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “it’s rarely so black and white…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13464"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13471,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13464\/revisions\/13471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}