LSU's Angel Reese, proper, and LaDazhia Williams react throughout an NCAA Women's Final Four semifinals basketball sport in opposition to Virginia Tech on March 31, 2023, in Dallas. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
After Louisiana State University beat the University of Iowa for the ladies’s school basketball championship on April 2, 2023 – profitable by 17 factors – first girl Jill Biden floated the concept of inviting each the profitable and dropping groups to the White House to have fun as a result of Iowa “performed such an excellent sport.”
The concept drew a pointy rebuke from LSU star ahead Angel Reese, who dismissed the concept as a “joke.” Jill Biden then backed off the concept.
For perception on the social dynamics at play within the matter, The Conversation reached out to Joseph N. Cooper, a researcher at University of Massachusetts Boston who specializes on the nexus of sport, training, race and tradition.
Why is race an vital lens for this occasion?
As I argue in my guide “From Exploitation Back to Empowerment,” race and racism are embedded in all elements of U.S. establishments and social life. The truth that almost all of gamers on the nationwide championship LSU Tigers have been Black ladies – and unapologetically outspoken and assured Black ladies at that – in comparison with the bulk white runners-up Iowa Hawkeyes, can’t be ignored.
Sports, as I’ve present in my analysis, usually thrusts Black athletes into conditions the place they have to confront societal inequalities resembling racism, sexism, financial stratification and different types of oppression.
Being invited to the White House is historically reserved as a coveted reward for the staff that wins the championship. The coincidence of first girl Biden inviting a majority white runner-up staff signifies white privilege. I’m not conscious of any scenario the place the staff that misplaced a championship received invited to the White House, however it’s notably troublesome for me to think about the identical remedy being afforded to a majority Black staff that was the runner-up.
I imagine the racial dynamics at play replicate the double customary that’s utilized to Black individuals and white individuals within the U.S. In different phrases, Black individuals have the burden of doing extra to get the identical entry and alternative as their white counterparts.
Jill Biden’s fake pas comes on the heels of a special controversy that additionally includes LSU and Iowa – and that’s the disparities in descriptions of the on-court antics of Iowa star Caitlin Clark, the 2023 Player of the Year, compared to LSU star Angel Reese, who was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 NCAA match.
Caitlin was described by ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo as aggressive, hardworking and a job mannequin regardless of her partaking in a number of gestures that taunted her opponents and trash-talking her opponents. In one occasion, she mentioned “You’re down 15 factors. Shut up.” to an opponent, however she didn’t draw the identical kind of criticism.
On the opposite hand, when Reese engaged in taunting and celebratory gestures, she was described Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy as being classless.
When you take a look at these developments altogether, for my part, it sends a message that Black individuals are not held to the identical customary as white individuals, even when they’re a part of a profitable staff.
As I word in my guide “Anti-Racism in Sports Organizations,” these current occasions are part of a protracted legacy of racism in U.S. sports activities. Examples from current historical past embrace the late TV character Don Imus making some racially derogatory on-air remarks in regards to the look of the Rutgers ladies’s basketball staff in 2007. Or former Los Angeles Clippers proprietor Donald Sterling chastising his then-girlfriend in 2014 for “associating with Black individuals” in public and on social media.
Are there different takeaways?
As the late comic and social critic Dick Gregory as soon as identified, many Black college students have been socialized to imagine they need to be “twice nearly as good” as a white individual to get the identical advantages and rewards. Jill Biden’s remarks did nothing to dispel this notion and will have even strengthened it.
W.E.B. DuBois prophetically mentioned within the early 1900s how “the issue of the color-line” could be a serious downside for the United States for the twentieth century. When you think about how race stays an issue effectively into the twenty first century, it reveals there may be an ongoing have to establish and problem racist beliefs and promote and embody anti-racist methods of doing, being and pondering.
Joseph N. Cooper doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.
