The sports world is nothing if not often divided into warring camps.
The latest dividing line is how you feel about LSU star player Angel Reese’s behavior in the Women’s College Basketball National Championship.
Her gestures toward Iowa Hawkeye standout Catlin Clark – the ring finger ready to be adorned with a championship ring and the “you can’t see me” move that Clark herself had used in an earlier game.
Sports pundits like Keith Olbermann has called Reese “a f-----g idiot.”
Many are calling for her to apologize and ripping her as “rude,” “unprofessional,” and calling for her to apologize.
Reese is Black and Clark is White, and therein lies one double standard – the double standard of race.
Clark was never criticized or questioned for her taunting.
Reese was immediately lambasted for doing the same thing as Clark.
It’s either right for both, or wrong for both.
Flimsy excuses won’t change the fact that Black women are expected to be meek and mild, while their White counterparts are allowed to express themselves fully with little chance of recrimination.
Another second double standard is sexism.
Male trash talking in sports is a cottage industry.
Especially in basketball, where notable trash talkers such as Larry Bird, Gary Payton, and Reggie Miller were as celebrated for their mouths as they were for their court skills.
Let women trash talk and it’s basically “unladylike,” although few would dare to say the quiet part out loud. They’ll just use any other euphemism that consigns women as the gentler sex, who shouldn’t show passion or emotion in such a fashion.
Personally, my talk trash is confined to trivia contests.
I don't think I'd talk smack if I were an elite athlete.
But I’ll never know for sure.
And just because I wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with trash talking.
If it’s okay for men to do, it’s okay for women.
Period.
This attack of the “isms” threatens to bury the lede on women’s college hoops this season, which has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Players like Clark, Reese, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, Azzi Fudd of UConn and others made this year the most exciting and talked about season ever.
Why don’t we leave them alone and let them play the way they want to play?
The way we let the men play.