Haters who labeled Caitlin Clark’s success as racism are now decrying race when she is referred to in court.

Caitlin Clark was hit hard again Wednesday night, this time when Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas appeared to slam her fist into Clark’s throat. Officials did not call insults. The next day, the WNBA suspended Thomas for one game.

Predictably, the usual suspects in the sports media spent Thursday dismissing any suggestion that the game was racially motivated.

“Some of you dummies can’t help but make any issue of anything about race huh? You support a person, you have to do with race. You don’t support a person, you have to do with race. The stupidity of most of you has zero bottom. It’s amazing. But again, it’s not. It’s 2026,” said ESPN commentator Louis X Riddick.

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Jemele Hill went further, blaming those who believe that the officials should have called a reprimand for “explaining that [Clark] he should get special treatment because he’s straight and white.”

He then directed the criticism at me after I argued that Clark deserved to be entrusted like all players, regardless of his race.

How dare I?

“Secondly, all of you who keep yelling and whining about race being brought up too much… but I’m surprised, surprised, that’s not the case now,” he tweeted.

No one can say with certainty that Thomas shot Clark because he is White. But it is perfectly reasonable to ask whether race played a role. After all, the same people who dismiss that have probably spent the last three years arguing that race and/or racism defines almost every aspect of Clark’s work.

They also say that Clark became a big star in women’s basketball because she is a straight White woman.

“We would all be naive if we didn’t say that her race and gender played a role in her popularity. Although many people are happy with Caitlin’s success, including the players, this has had a big impact on the game, there is a small problem with it because of what it says about the fitness and marketing of the players who already exist,” said Hill in Los 2024 Times.

ESPN commentator Monica McNutt accused young White girls of gravitating to Clark because he is White. Stephen A. Smith makes similar arguments. So did Shannon Sharpe, “The View,” USA Today and the New York Times, as well as many current and former players.

Several of those players also accused Clark of benefiting from “white privilege” because she refused to speak publicly about allegations of discrimination against black women in the WNBA. Angel Reese even posted a TikTok mocking Clark as a “white girl who’s afraid to touch the fade,” alongside a photo of herself confronting Clark.

Last summer, ESPN published an incredibly useless article that portrayed Clark’s supporters as racist. The author described going to a Fever-Sun game where he saw a fan wearing a MAGA hat. He did not explain why that was racist. Instead, he concluded that the wind itself felt threatening.

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“Every time the Fever scored,” he wrote, “the crowd erupted, but it didn’t sound like the fans were rooting for their team. It sounded like a threat.”

At first, many of these same people denied that Clark was targeted at all. When Kennedy Carter blindsided Clark in 2024, they insisted he was “playing basketball.”

Two years later, that argument has become harder to maintain. Cheap images are more common, more vivid and less flexible. So the story has changed. The mistakes are now acknowledged, but any suggestion that they show a wider pattern is dismissed.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is pictured after collapsing in the lane while Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas watches the ball at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 24, 2026. (Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

The problem is that these idolaters of the race cannot have it both ways.

If race is responsible for the benefits Clark enjoys, as they have been arguing, then there must also always be legal considerations when assessing the disadvantages he faces, including the way he works.

Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White made that point after Wednesday’s game.

“We have a generational talent and a WNBA star, with two cheap shots right there, that weren’t called,” White said. “He’s not called what everyone else calls him.”

The obvious question is: why?

Another explanation is that years of media coverage have shaped the mindset within the league. When players are repeatedly told that Clark owes popularity, wealth, and influence to the racial privilege rather than sheer talent, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if some end up resenting him.

And that’s increasingly what these incidents are like: repeated hostilities directed at one player.

Caitlin Clark left the Indiana Fever’s Wednesday game against the Phoenix Mercury after suffering a back injury. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Three years into Clark’s career, there is no evidence that he represents the team great White hope. He is a cultural icon for the same reasons that Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Tiger Woods are cultural icons. Clark is a prolific talent with a unique and exciting playing style.

For now, he looks pretty much the same A large white target with every punch in the throat, nail in the eye and shove down.

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No wonder figures like Jemele Hill and Louis Riddick have become so defensive. They spent years encouraging audiences to interpret Clark’s work through the lens of race. Now others are applying that same framework to Clark’s treatment of the court.

It’s not fun when a rabbit gets shot, is it?