In her latest USA Today column, Nancy Armour compared WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s supposed “flopping” to racism, even invoking the murder of Emmitt Till.
Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago, was lynched in Money, Mississippi, on August 28, 1955, for supposedly assaulting Carolyn Bryant, a white woman.
Bryant claimed Till “grabbed her, made lewd advances and wolf-whistled at her as he sauntered out.” Her husband and his brother hunted down Till:
His assailants—the white woman’s husband and his brother—made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.
An all-white jury acquitted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. Both men confessed to the crime to Look magazine after their acquittals.
Horrific. Absolutely horrific.
Tim Tyson wrote in his book The Blood of Emmitt Till that Bryant “recanted her testimony, admitting that Till had never touched, threatened, or harassed her.”
Bryant denied she ever recanted her testimony to Tyson.
In Armour’s mind, the situation with Clark mirrors Till:
It seems there is a white nationalist faction to Clark’s fandom that is deeply, deeply problematic, made even more so because the WNBA is made up predominantly of Black women, many of them queer. When Clark claims fouls that don’t exist, when she goes on profanity-laced tirades at referees, those racists see her as a white woman in need of saving and take matters into their own hands.
So, yeah, Clark’s anger about the non-called fouls is responsible for the few stupid people who apparently threatened at least two of the players who knocked her around.
Except, you know, Clark doesn’t flop or exaggerate the hits she endures. Let’s not forget the throat punch.
You want flopping? Watch soccer.
Armour admitted she made an “inartful comparison” in her column and “did not provide enough context for that.”
No, Armour didn’t apologize. The “apology” is more of an “I cannot believe I have to provide context for you pleebs” and “how dare you only concentrate on that part of my super duper point!” Not kidding:
However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league.Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously.I sincerely regret that my lack of appropriate context is overshadowing that important conversation and the action that needs to be taken by the WNBA to address it directly – for the benefit of ALL players.
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