The Women’s National Basketball Association of the United States (WNBA) has had a historic season. Since its creation in 1996, the first division of this league had never sold so many tickets for its games nor had it had such a large television audience. The media spotlights in recent weeks, however, have not been pointing towards this success, but rather towards the wave of racist attacks of which several of the players have been victims.
On the Instagram profiles and other platforms of the athletes—many of whom are black and members of the LGTBI community—hate comments, insults or even threats against them have multiplied, there are those who think that this is a response to the growing popularity of the women’s league. The attacks reached a tipping point late last September, during the playoff games between the Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever. Before the second meeting, the Connecticut team’s guard, <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2024/05/caitlin-clarks-wnba-debut-a-deep-dive-into-her-game/" title="Caitlin Clark's WNBA Debut: A Deep Dive Into Her Game”>DiJonai Carrington, shared on her Instagram account an anonymous email she received with insults and explicit threats of death and sexual assault.
The day after the game, the WNBA issued an official statement condemning the hateful comments that, like Carrington, several athletes had been receiving. She did not make any further statements about the threats, but guard Caitlin Clark—young Indiana Fever star, white and one of the key reasons for understanding the rise of the competition this year—and her coach, Christie Sides, did. The journalists denounced the “racist rhetoric” with which the players are being martyred. Clark, winner of the WNBA rookie of the year award, said that those who insult “are not fans, but trolls “They are hurting the league.”
Attacks on female players are not unusual in American sports. Although national culture has the maxim that this should be an apolitical space, it often ends up being another battlefield of polarization. It is worth remembering how, in 2019, the national team’s soccer players became the target of former President Donald Trump and his followers for their criticism of the president and the anti-LGTBI policies of the Republican Party, or when transgender athletes such as swimmer Lia Thomas have been victims of other hate campaigns.
Unlike the ostracism to which male athletes are often condemned when they take a political position (such as the case of NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem to condemn racism), in sports women there is greater solidarity among the players. After the threats to Carrington, players and former players from other teams came to his defense. Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White said she has “never seen anything like this in her entire career.” “We are seeing a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia in our country and sport is no exception,” he denounced. In a recent report, The Athletic He pointed out that the harassment of WNBA players is taking a toll on their mental health. “Some have taken measures such as deactivating their social media accounts or limiting their participation in press events,” the piece reads. The WNBA wants to show an atmosphere of normality to continue its successful season, without having yet announced concrete measures to protect the players.
