After Louisiana State College beat the College of Iowa for the ladies’s faculty basketball championship on April 2, 2023 – winning by 17 points – first girl Jill Biden floated the concept of inviting each the successful and dropping groups to the White Home to rejoice as a result of Iowa “played such a good game.”
The concept drew a pointy rebuke from LSU star ahead Angel Reese, who dismissed the idea as a “joke.” Jill Biden then backed off the idea.
For perception on the social dynamics at play within the matter, The Dialog reached out to Joseph N. Cooper, a researcher at College of Massachusetts Boston who specializes on the nexus of sport, education, race and culture.
Why is race an essential lens for this occasion?
As I argue in my e-book “From Exploitation Back to Empowerment,” race and racism are embedded in all facets of U.S. establishments and social life. The truth that the vast majority of gamers on the national championship LSU Tigers have been Black ladies – and unapologetically outspoken and confident Black women at that – in comparison with the majority white runners-up Iowa Hawkeyes, can’t be ignored.
Sports activities, as I’ve present in my analysis, typically thrusts Black athletes into situations where they must confront societal inequalities corresponding to racism, sexism, financial stratification and different types of oppression.
Being invited to the White Home is historically reserved as a coveted reward for the crew that wins the championship. The coincidence of first girl Biden inviting a majority white runner-up crew signifies white privilege. I’m not conscious of any state of affairs the place the crew that misplaced a championship received invited to the White Home, but it surely’s significantly troublesome for me to think about the identical therapy being afforded to a majority Black crew that was the runner-up.
I imagine the racial dynamics at play mirror 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 unique controversy that additionally entails 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 task mannequin regardless of her partaking in a number of gestures that taunted her opponents and trash-talking her opponents. In a single occasion, she mentioned “You’re down 15 points. Shut up.” to an opponent, however she didn’t draw the identical sort of criticism.
Then again, when Reese engaged in taunting and celebratory gestures, she was described Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy as being classless.
Once you have 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 successful crew.
As I observe in my e-book “Anti-Racism in Sports Organizations,” these latest occasions are part of a protracted legacy of racism in U.S. sports activities. Examples from latest historical past embrace the late TV character Don Imus making some racially derogatory on-air remarks concerning the look of the Rutgers ladies’s basketball crew in 2007. Or former Los Angeles Clippers proprietor Donald Sterling chastising his then-girlfriend in 2014 for “associating with Black people” in public and on social media.
Are there different takeaways?
Because the late comic and social critic Dick Gregory as soon as identified, many Black college students have been socialized to imagine they should be “twice as good” as a white particular person to get the identical advantages and rewards. Jill Biden’s remarks did nothing to dispel this notion and should have even strengthened it.
W.E.B. DuBois prophetically mentioned within the early 1900s how “the problem of the color-line” could be a significant drawback for america for the twentieth century. When you think about how race stays an issue properly into the twenty first century, it reveals there’s an ongoing have to determine and problem racist beliefs and promote and embody anti-racist methods of doing, being and considering.
Joseph N. Cooper is Endowed Chair of Sport Management and Administration, UMass Boston.
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