Former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes is fighting back, asserting that black people are incapable of being racist after facing accusations of racism over recent remarks regarding college basketball star Caitlin Clark.
Earlier this month, Swoopes, an African American, criticized white college basketball star Caitlin Clark, claiming that Clark does not deserve the recognition she receives for breaking records in women’s college basketball.
On February 15th, Clark broke the NCAA’s women’s career scoring record, leading Iowa to third place in women’s basketball for the season.
Clark also surpassed one of Swoopes’s records by setting an NCAA Tournament milestone, scoring 191 points across Iowa’s six games last year. Clark eclipsed Swoopes’s 177 points for Texas Tech in 1993.
The college star’s success seems to have resulted in bitterness on Swoopes’s end.
Swoopes attempted to downplay Clark’s accomplishments, but her assertions were riddled with inaccurate statistics and misinformation. Social media users accused her of criticizing Clark solely because the college star is white.
The ex-college and WNBA star vented her frustration at Clark through multiple social media posts, alleging that Clark cheated by using an additional year of eligibility and taking 40 shots per game.
Swoopes’ claims were not only incorrect but extremly so. Clark has not taken an extra year, and she’s actually had half the average per-game shots that Swoopes alleged.
Naturally, Swoopes faced significant backlash online, with many labeling her as racist for criticizing the white college star.
However, Swoopes is now pushing back, asserting that it’s impossible for black people to be racist.
“For people to come at me and say that I made those comments because I’m a racist. First of all, Black people can’t be racist, but that’s the farthest thing from my mind,” Swoopes said on a recent episode of Gil’s Arena.
“I grew up in a very small West Texas town — predominantly white. My best childhood friend is white. Went to a predominantly white college. Won a national championship [and] pretty much everyone on the team was white. We’re sisters to this day. That’s not a part of my DNA,” she added.
Swoopes appears to be deploying the similar tropethat white people are always made fun of, but in reverse, when they say they have black friends, so their comments can’t be racist.
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