The media is responsible for the racist rhetoric surrounding women’s basketball

I studied mass communication and media studies at university and have become obsessive about observing how the media operated and controlled society – especially in the United States.

Journalists are purported to be the “guardians” of society. We’re here to observe what is going on on and produce that information to the public, and for the most part, that is what journalists on this country have done.

But so much has modified in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, and in the race for clicks, eyes and engagement, the line between real journalism and yellow journalism has develop into so blurred that I sometimes wonder how for much longer it will possibly all go on.

Media studies are my occupation, and I observe how journalists and media organizations play the “media game” and use their platforms for each good and evil.

I actually have at all times been particularly fascinated by the way agenda-setting, status-giving, narrative, and framing play out in contemporary society. In school, our examples were different perspectives from which wars and conflicts through which the United States was involved were presented.

In a couple of years, journalism students can be examining how white male-dominated sports media use agenda-setting, status-giving, and framing to create a narrative that paints Caitlin Clark as a victim of constant antagonism from black women in the WNBA.

I do not think I would like to explain what has happened to this point on a play-by-play basis.

Caitlin Clark ended her time at Iowa and was chosen No. 1 overall in the WNBA by the Indiana Fever.

She’s not the only rookie to be drafted, and he or she’s not even the best rookie in the league immediately, but by being given the status, she’s been placed on a pedestal and elevated to “the best thing that ever happened.” to the WNBA,” which is completely unfair to the other women who worked hard in the league before she got there and are still working hard in the league now that she is here.

Status conferral is when the media decides that one person or one thing is more essential than every thing and everybody else. They will beat us over the head with news and stories about this person or thing until we get uninterested in hearing them.

I’m uninterested in hearing about Caitlin Clark.

I’m sick of hearing about Caitlin Clark, and it has nothing to do with the indisputable fact that she’s white, but the framing of the narrative surrounding her – the narrative created by white, male-dominated sports media that is swallowed whole and regurgitated by traditional media – it’s , that everybody is against her because she’s a white girl who got here to W and “took over” and all the black women are jealous of her.

Sports

Please. BFFR.

It doesn’t take much for white racists to froth on this country. All you’ve gotten to do is put the words “black” and “white” in a single sentence and everybody can be foaming at the mouth and screaming at black people, calling us racists and saying that every thing is our fault.

Agenda-setting is when the media controls not only what people concentrate to, but in addition how they consider it. Sensationalizing, giving the most salacious details about something, or continuously talking about the same thing again and again gives an individual or thing status and determines how the public views and perceives her or him.

The white media is doing this to Caitlin Clark.

When we are saying we’re sick of hearing about her, we understand it has nothing to do with the indisputable fact that she’s white and every thing to do with the indisputable fact that they shove her down our throats in such an aggressive way that it is a wonder we do not all keep going around continuously choking.

However, the white media is obsessed together with her because she is their “Great White Hope” and so as to keep her name in the headlines, they should create a narrative (or plot) that they will proceed to proceed for so long as they should, in order that it will possibly be an on a regular basis topic.

In a post-George Floyd America, this narrative is divisive and racist.

Caitlin Clark is treated no otherwise than another basketball player in her league. It’s basketball. It’s a quick and physical sport. Sometimes people get knocked down. Sometimes people get fouled.

Have you ever watched Draymond Green play? He is a bully on the court. Have you ever seen him need to answer repeated questions on the same foul after a game?

But that is what happens when Caitlin Clark goes up against a black defender. If a black woman in the WNBA even frivolously touches Caitlin Clark, suddenly it becomes a relentless topic of dialogue, and players – like Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter – need to answer query after query about something that happens quite frequently in basketball.

Caitlin Clark herself fouled and knocked people down, but when she did it, she was an important athlete who was just playing football. He never has to reply questions on it or see it analyzed repeatedly by writers and talking heads.

When a black player does this to her, we get editorials from major city newspapers calling for it Black player charged with assault. On social media we see racist white people camping out and waiting for a possibility to attack any black one that dares to say them.

We get Fox News calling Caitlin Clark “Jackie Robinson of the WNBA” because she was fouled by her college rival, Angel Reese.

To be fair, it is not just the white media that does this. We watched Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith – two black men who should know higher – spend the higher a part of two weeks playing basketball and knowing the sport inside out, all so that they could land Caitlin Clark.

This is disgusting.

One of the basic ethical principles of journalism is “do no harm”

This media narrative about Caitlin Clark is harmful. This is harmful to the WNBA. This is harmful to Black women like Angel Reese and Chennedy CaKrter, and to each other Black woman who has to guard Clark or play against her in the game.

The media has a responsibility to society, and it shirks that responsibility out of respect for uplifting the white woman and pretending she’s the neatest thing since sliced ​​bread.

Caitlin Clark is doing well for a rookie, but she’s not the best newcomer. She’s not even the best newcomer. Kate Martin would really like to have a word.

IN his rating WNBA rookies in the first month of the 2024 season, based on ESPN, Caitlin Clark was ranked sixth. Cameron Brink is in 1st place followed by Angel Reese in 2nd place. Kate Martin is in third place.

I do not mention this to discredit Caitlin Clark; I’m sharing this to prove a degree. Caitlin Clark is good, but not the best, and the concept that she “intimidates” black women in the league is there Stretch Armstrong-range level.

This narrative has been in the slow cooker ever since Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark faced one another in the NCAA Championships.

White people have been waiting to avenge this loss and see this as their golden opportunity.

White journalists and racist white people have made it so unbearable to be on social media anywhere basketball is discussed.

They don’t even care about sports; all they care about is having a method to put black women away – pun fully intended.

At this point the energy is wild and crazy and completely uncontrolled.

White racists find every opportunity to attack Angela Reese, Chennedy Carter and another black woman at W who they perceive as a threat to their white princess, however it doesn’t stop there.

You cannot be a black person mentioning Caitlin Clark on the web and never be attacked for it, especially if you happen to are a black woman. Ask me how I do know.

AND he recently wrote on Twitter “I’m so tired of hearing that girl’s name.” I didn’t even specify who I used to be talking about, but you possibly can click on the tweet and see the replies I received.

Similarly, once I questioned the notion that Clark had “quite a bit of privilege,” racists got here out in full force to attack me. I didn’t call her ugly. I didn’t say anything negative about her. I simply questioned the use of the phrase “pretty privileged” in reference to her and white people lost it.

I’m only a author talking on Twitter.

Imagine what Black women in the WNBA face on this timeline.

The media narrative surrounding Caitlin Clark is dangerous for Angel Reese and all other Black women in the WNBA, and at the current rate it is going, someone could get hurt and the media can be completely complicit in that.

Caitlin Clark recently condemned using her name in the obvious racist media storm that is currently happening, and in my personal opinion her statement was weak and he or she only did so after being called out by Dijonai Carrington.

Caitlin Clark is the epitome of white privilege – especially the privilege of being a white woman in America.

She can easily miss every thing that is happening since it doesn’t negatively impact her; he advantages from it and has a level of privilege that he doesn’t need to openly admit it because regardless of what, these racist white people will defend their “queen”.

If Caitlin is not going to talk up, another person, a white person, has to do it. Many white people should speak up and explain what this is.

White persons are foaming at the mouth this week because Angel fouled Caitlin during their match last Sunday.

The media plays its part by making noise out of it, presenting something that it really is not, and if you happen to have a look at it Angel Reese’s trending topic on Twitteryou gain a really disturbing insight into what this sort of storytelling and framing does to an unintelligent, rabidly racist “fan base.”

We cannot even call them fans because they do not care about basketball; they only care about degrading and disrespecting black women in the name of the white girl.

It’s a story as old as time.

White fragility breeds white violence.

Let us pray that no Black woman who is thrown into this example can be hurt.