DL Open Thread: Sunday, June 23, 2024

No. Drinking bleach was probably worse. A novel on the same subject that’s well worth reading:  Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.  An excerpt from the review.  Sound familiar?:

This is also why his book works. It is an act of protest, but it does not straightforwardly preach. Instead, it lures you in, as if to demonstrate how easy it might be to accept a world this sick. Even readers who acknowledge the brazen evil of the dystopian premise — these televised duels offer prisoners a path to freedom — might find themselves titillated by its depiction, which functions as both satire and straight-up sportswriting. The lulls between bouts give readers a beat to think about all the ways they’ve been conditioned to enjoy such a story, by any number of America’s perversions: its narcotic televised pastimes, its singular talent for mass incarceration, its steady innovation in violence technology, its racial caste system, its eternal appetite for retribution. But it’s fun, I promise.

‘The Conservative Men Who Are Suddenly Interested In Women’s Sports’.  They’ve found a would-be heroine in Caitlin Clark.  Clark finally pushes back:

You don’t need to know anything about basketball to have heard of Caitlin Clark. She’s a record-breaking superstar who has helped take women’s basketball to new heights. Unfortunately, she’s also been shoved into a starring role in the culture wars. An awful lot of conservative men, who don’t ordinarily give a damn about women’s sports, have decided that she provides a very convenient excuse for them to be racist and misogynistic on main. Although, to be fair, they don’t normally need an excuse.

While some of Clark’s fans are accusing her fellow players of jealousy, a certain group of galaxy-brains has decided that the star is actually a victim of reverse discrimination. Conservative commentator Clay Travis, who is the founder of OutKick, is one of the loudest of these voices.

“Caitlin Clark is a white heterosexual woman in a Black lesbian league and they resent and are jealous of all of the attention and the [alleged $28m Nike] deal that she got,” Travis said on Fox News earlier this month.

Internet personality Stew Peters (who has more than 600,000 followers on X) is fond of the same talking point; he’s just added a little more overt racism. “White WNBA player Caitlin Clark is being physically assaulted EVERY GAME by Shaq-looking black lesbians but nobody wants to talk about,” Peters tweeted on Thursday.

Actually, Mr Peters, your compatriots can’t stop talking about it.

Sports journalist Jason Whitlock has also chimed in on the matter. “The WNBA for 25-26 years has basically been a traveling lesbian sex cult,” Whitlock told Fox Sports Radio recently. “They’re upset that Caitlin Clark is bringing heterosexual people into their arena.”

Earlier this month, the Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington called Clark out on this: “How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts,” Carrington tweeted. “We all see the s—. We all have a platform.”

It seems like Carrington’s feedback might have resonated. On Thursday, Clark addressed the issue more directly when a writer from the Athletic asked her how she feels about her name being weaponized. “It’s disappointing,” Clark said. “The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect, so people should not be using my name to push those agendas.” It’s a bit of a wishy-washy statement, but it’s something. Clark should be applauded for finally speaking up.