The past 48 hours has been... interesting if you know anything about sports, sports media, and the way certain things are reported on and lauded in the public sphere so, let's do a brief rundown.
You have two players: Player A and Player B.
Player A is an impressive talent - easily the standout of the whole tournament. She's got drive and fire and passion and it shows, not just in the way she plays, but in the way she carries herself on the court. Player A has been seen, on multiple occasions, getting fired up and 'clapping back' at opponents who try and chat nonsense on the court. So much so that publications (like ESPN) have championed her as, quote, "The Queen Of Clap-Backs". There are video compilations of her snapping back at opponents and doing the John Cena (well, Tony Yayo) "You Can't See Me" hand gesture on the court. There are even clips of Player A trash talking hard on the court (telling players to 'shut up' cause they're losing, even a couple of occasions of calling them "b****" on the court). Crowds go wild. The tournament gets massive ratings and Player A is likely on her way to becoming a household name.
Player B is also an impressive talent. Same amount of fire and drive; incredibly intense on the court. Her game is less 'flashy' (fewer points, more 'intangibles' on the court - IYKYK) but still a gem in the game. Player B doesn't get the "Queen Of Clap-Backs" moniker and it doesn't seem to phase her in the least.
Player A's team meets Player B's team in the finals. A good portion of the nation expects Player's A team to win. Player A puts on a show but the whole of Player B's team is just too much and they win handily. Player A did a lot of trash talking in a previous game against who many thought would be the favorites to make the finals and, as a result, Player B decided, at the end of the game, to 'clap-back' using the same hand gesture and motioning to her ring finger as the clock wound down. If you know sports, this level of trash talking is just... par for the course. We see it in the NBA, NFL, even the WNBA. Player A doesn't even seem to take umbrage with the trash talking and is likely to use it as motivation coming back the next year.
However, the same level of adulation that Player A got for clapping back at opponents, taunting, and even cursing out her opponents is not offered to Player B. In fact, Player B has been called "classless", a "fucking idiot", and "ghetto" for her late game actions. When faced with what Player A has done throughout the entire tournament, somehow Player A's actions are just... 'different'. Unlike those uncouth, classless, and "idiotic" gestures from Player B.
It wouldn't surprise you to learn that Player A and Player B look different or come from two different backgrounds. The world reacting to two different people in different ways, however, does not make for a lesson in racism... in a vacuum, that is. It could've been about personal preference. It could've been that, yeah, maybe the two gestures or situations WERE drastically different (they weren't and I'm going to get into that) and people have a discerning eye.
When it comes to speaking about race, there's always this disclaimer that must be utilized to ensure that many white listeners keep listening - it's one that we almost trip over ourselves in an attempt to keep the conversation civil and that's, to paraphrase: "You are not your ancestors". Simply put: the actions of people in the past do not reflect upon who you are as a person. And it's right (the 'walking on eggshells' part is the constant reassurance that this is where the speaker is coming from and the judgement is about the systems in place; not the individual). But what a lot of people don't know is that same gentle assessment of past actions and motivations does not translate to, well, 'us'.
Player B is 20 years old and, yet, in 48 hours, she got a taste of over a century of the interpersonal relationships between Blackness, Black womanhood, sports & sports media, and white femininity. Even if she wasn't "woke" before, this was likely an eye opening experience at the way the world sees you.
Breaking it down...
Trash talking in sports has been around since, well, sports. Chirping on the pitch, in the huddle, on the court; all part of their respective games. It's weird, though, because, growing up in the 90s when the NBA was becoming a global brand thanks to MJ, sports media decried trash talking and the flashy "notice me" individualism of sports. One example was a line I remember "Be less like Deion Sanders and more like Barry Sanders" - the former was a 2 sport athlete, hall of famer, and embodied the flashy, trash talking persona while the latter was a player who 'did things right' by 'acting like he'd been there'; no celebrations whatsoever. Deion was bad because you noticed him; Barry was good because he seemingly diminished his light in favor of the team.
This wasn't just a relic of the 90s. This mindset bled into the 2000s, the 2010s; hell if you listen to certain sports analysts today, you'll hear the tendrils of 'ruining the game' mentalities from sea to shining sea. So it was curious, but not surprising, to see that Player A is getting praised for the very thing that various Player Bs have done for years and have gotten raked over the coals for for, well, ruining their respective games. And this isn't Player A's fault in the least; it never is when it comes to the individual. However, we do see how Player A benefits from it in the way she's spoken about by the same national sports media that have downed so many Player Bs before.
The thing that people need to understand is the ways in which the goalposts have shifted. It wasn't when they denigrated Player B for the same thing that Player A did; the goalposts shifted when Player A was celebrated in the first place. The rules changed. Trash talking and flashy 'notice me' style of play and supposed arrogance became good when Player A did it. Whole teams that looked like Player B, who dominated on the court? That's bad. Individuals that looked like Player B? Also bad. But Player A? Not only good, but also celebrated. And now, after the world showed who they were, we have Dr. Jill Biden (reportedly) suggesting that Player A's losing team be invited to the White House - a ceremony that, for years, has only been offered to the winning team of national sports games (Super Bowls, Finals, World Series, etc.).
So with all that, with these past 48 hours, you can see why the intersection of race/racism isn't just about the hateful rhetoric. Sometimes it's just how the subtle rules change.
