Opinion: WNBA star demoted from MAGA's white goddess

The torrential downpour greeting WNBA star Caitlin Clark over comments made during an interview at a Time magazine event have been both amusing and disturbing.

Clark, the Indiana Fever star who was recently named Time magazine’s Athlete of the Year, expressed her admiration and respect for Black women who have paved the way in female basketball and the importance of promoting diversity as well as diverse voices in the sport. She also expressed hope to utilize her platform to develop possibilities for others while acknowledging various racial situations in professional sports often play out in ways that benefit white athletes, like herself.

“[The WNBA] has only been around 25-plus years. I know there’s been so many amazing Black women that have been in this league, and continuing to uplift them I think is very important. That’s something I’m very aware of,” Clark said during the interview.

Supporters lauded Clark for highlighting systemic inequities and for acknowledging the contributions of Black players who made it possible for athletes like her to flourish. But critics denounced her comments as “performative,” asking whether a Black player in a disproportionately white-dominated sport would feel pressured to make similar statements. Some even questioned if Clark’s acknowledgment of privilege detracts from her own hard-earned success.

“Look at this. She’s on the knee all but apologizing for being white and getting attention,” former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly wrote in an unhinged rant on social media. “The self-flagellation. The ‘oh pls pay attention to the black players who are REALY the ones you want to celebrate.’ Condescending. Fake. Transparent. Sad.”

Clay Travis, the founder of conservative sports site OutKick, re-posted a video of Clark at the gala and shamed her for her comments. “If Caitlin Clark insists on thanking people for the WNBA legacy she joined, why doesn’t she thank the NBA players who have spent 25 years subsidizing the WNBA, a league that has still never made a single dollar in profit?” Travis wrote in a series of tweets.

The WNBA’s legacy as a league that has always been deeply connected to Black culture, and Clark places herself within a broader narrative — one where her success does not overshadow the contributions of those who came before her. The fact the WNBA is an organization where Black LGBTQIA+ women are well represented accounts for the considerable degree of homophobia and racism among a segment of conservative right-wing critics. The incident has been a Rorschach Test of epic proportions.

The Black experience in America is a distinctive one that has been simultaneously marked and marred with rivers of blood, mountains of sweat and more than a few tears. The psychological impact is real.

The truth is people like Megyn Kelly and Clay Travis would prefer Clark tout the disingenuous “we are all Americans” rhetoric about working hard and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. If Clark remains quiet and resorts to “shutting up and dribbling,” diplomatically responding to questions about race from the media, she would remain a talented athletic white goddess to many on the right. But now that she has directly weighed in on racial issues, she is no longer the white Cinderella to the MAGA right. She has now reverted to becoming an ugly stepsister.

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. Contact him at:

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