Social media has too often been a racial cesspool for the WNBA, as trolls disguised as fans have made it toxic. This became apparent as soon as Caitlin Clark was drafted by Indiana in the 2024 Draft and intensified when Angel Reese was drafted five slots later by Chicago at No. 6.
“I think the general sentiment is you have to be really careful about the way you are discussing things,” admitted Natalie Esquire, an NBC Sports streaming content producer.
Unlike many new media, Esquire has been covering the W for a while now and has seen the influx of new media this season. Too many media have gone ga-ga over Clark, the new Great White Hope.
“There’s a lot of new media in light of Caitlin Clark’s being here, and a lot of them are going to games where sometimes Caitlin is not even involved in the game, and they’re asking the coaches, the players about Caitlin,” observed Esquire.
“If you’re going to a game with two teams that don’t involve her, even if it does involve her, are you going to ask any questions about that team? Are you going to ask questions about other players?
“Even if they are a qualified journalist,” continued Esquire, “they may not be qualified to cover the WNBA at large.”
As a result, fans and media have been worshipping Clark too much this season, and the worshipping has been racial, added Esquire.
“You’re perceived to be a hater if everything out of [your] mouth is not praising Caitlin Clark,” said Esquire. “No matter what criticism you may have, even if it’s legitimate, if it is not something that’s favoring Caitlin Clark, then you don’t like her. You’re a hater.”
For many of us who have followed, covered, or otherwise supported the WNBA since its founding in 1997, the WNBA’s marketing schemes have been too selective at the expense of most Black players, who too often get overlooked.
“The disproportionate coverage of a white player and Black players has always been there,” stressed Esquire. “I’m sorry, it’s disproportionate because a lot of this is because the players who are being covered do not have the same accolades and the same success as the Black players.
“This Is not a dynamic that currently exists in the NBA right now,” said Esquire, who covers both leagues.
Dr. Ajhanai (AJ) Keaton is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies the intersection of race, gender, and sports organizations.
“I believe that race is a guiding politic,” explained Keaton. “But I think it’s also gender, and I think we can’t ignore the way race and gender politics play into this. Caitlin Clark being a white woman, right? Being a white woman from the Midwest, being heterosexual, representing something to white America, right?
“That white dominance in an overwhelmingly majority Black women’s league,” she continued, “there’s a politics of gender and sexual orientation that is very much so present there.
It’s not because [the Black players] are not good,” noted Esquire. “It’s not because they’re not exciting. It’s not because there aren’t stories to tell about them. It’s because they are women who are Black, and many of them are queer,” she stressed. “The intersectionality affects how this league is covered and talked about.
“It’s a women’s league that is predominately Black,” said Esquire. “It’s a women’s league that’s predominately Black that has a large LGBTQ+ community. It cannot be covered like the NBA, women’s soccer … It can’t be covered like these other leagues because it is so unique in its intersectionality.”
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s recent comments on CNBC ignored the social media bullying of W players such as Reese and others this season. It seemed that Engelbert was more concerned that the league games continue to set record attendance figures.
Keaton called her comments “the unpacking of capitalism.”
“This is a league that was heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter Movement, heavily involved in the (2020) election, but then a couple of years later, we have the same commissioner who doesn’t know how to say racism,” concluded the professor.
“I think we also have to think about the role of economic growth and viewership, and television contracts encapsulated under capitalism, which are also playing into this.”