Caitlin Clark Addresses Her Name Being “Weaponized” For “Racist” Agendas
Caitlin Clark has publicly disassociated herself from racist and xenophobic remarks seemingly made in her defense, as the WNBA star addresses hateful comments made at her rivals and opponents’ expense.
On Thursday (June 13), prior to her Indiana Fever’s matchup against the Atlanta Dream, the No. 1 overall draft pick was asked about her name being “weaponized” to spread divisive agendas, behavior she wholly denounced as unacceptable.
“I think it’s disappointing. I think everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect,” Clark told James Boyd of The Athletic. “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 disappointing, it’s not acceptable.”
The 22-year-old continued, expressing her desire to see all of her professional peers embraced in a manner similar to how she’s had by fans and the media. “This league is a league I grew up admiring and wanting to be a part of. Some of the women in this league were my biggest idols and role models growing up and helped me wanting to achieve this moment right here that I get to play in every single night.”
“Just treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect—I think it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do,” the high-scoring phenom concluded. “Just be a kind person and treat them, you know, how you would want to be treated. I think it’s very simple.”
Clark’s seemingly passive and unagressive demanor, oncourt and off, has led to critisicm that she hasn’t addressed her name being used to fuel dissent among fans, as factors such as race have bled into conversations surrounding her. The former Iowa Hawkeye previously said that she prefers to keep her focus on basketball, as opposed to what the public says about her.
“I don’t put too much thought and time into thinking about things like that, and to be honest, I don’t see a lot of it,” Clark said at the time. “Basketball is my job. Everything on the outside, I can’t control that, so I’m not going to spend time thinking about that.”
Clark’s comments were seemingly scrutinized by Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington, who questioned why Clark hadn’t used her platform to address her name being used in a manner not representative of her own sentiments.
“Dawg. 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 wrote in a post on X. “We all see the sh*t. We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury.”
I asked #IndianaFever’s Caitlin Clark directly about her name being weaponized for racism/misogyny (as Dijonai Carrington alluded to):
“It’s disappointing. … Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect.” pic.twitter.com/gyAWBqGG8c— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) June 13, 2024
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