Dawn Staley has been known to speak on social and gender issues, especially pertaining to Black women throughout her three-championship tenure at South Carolina.
When Staley has spoken on issues in the past, her own fans at times have accused her of “race baiting” and “pulling the race card” on certain issues. However, she and her players didn’t look to be too thrilled by the question one reporter asked them to open up the press conference after a hard-fought 78-52 win over No. 3 seed TCU to advance to another Final Four.
The reporter didn’t ask about Staley’s sixth straight Final Four appearance. South Carolina (34-3) advanced behind a strong showing from Joyce Edwards. He didn’t ask about her 24 points. Or freshman sensation Agot Makeer’s 18. It’s like he didn’t see them.
TCU kept it close behind the scrappiness of Olivia Miles, but Staley’s bunch outscored TCU 29-11 to turn a close game into a typical South Carolina smothering.
Reporter Shocks Dawn Staley, Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer With Race-Based Question To Start Postgame Presser
The reporter said he was from the Sacramento Observer and claims he had been waiting all day to ask them a question. Problem is, it wasn’t about the game. He showed no understanding of how sports works, didn’t respect the players or Staley. And seemed to have a race-based agenda that was ill-timed, if anything. He was stumbling through the question as if he had memorized it and was nervous to ask.
“As women’s college basketball continues to grow in popularity, how is the sport contributing to the empowerment of women, particularly Black women?” he asked.
“Gosh, deep question,” Staley replied, as her players sat there in confusion.
Dawn Staley asked him to repeat the question and implied that he should have asked them about the game first. The reporter, noticing the uneasiness, tried to lighten things up by complimenting Staley’s jacket.
Joyce Edwards and Dawn Staley Re-Direct & Answer Reporter’s ‘Deep’ Question
Edwards and Makeer looked uncomfortable with the question and its timing as well. Edwards did her best to gracefully give an answer.
“We are out here playing. Just trying to do what we do. We are confident in ourselves and even off the court you see what we do. You see our styles You see our smarts…You see what we do academically. We’re not just athletes. We just try to represent the female gender and be ourselves and be comfortable in being ourselves,” Edwards replied.
Then Staley out a bow on it.
“Women are some of the most powerful beings on earth and I will take a page out of my mothers book in that she used to say ‘a woman has the strength of 10 men’ and I believe her. The challenges we are faced with we do them with a great deal of poise because we know if we handled things differently, we probably wouldn’t be able to accomplish what we accomplish because of opposing forces,” Staley told the room of reporters.
Fans React To Awkward Race-Based Question From Reporter To Dawn Staley & Players
“STOP PUSHING THE RACE NARRATIVE! We are all so fakkin sick of it!” said one fan.
“He said he been waiting all day to ask that question. way to respond Joyce and Coach,” one watcher supportive of the way Staley responded posted on X.
“I watched it live and that Q was very odd. I also want EVERYONE to remember these are college STUDENTS. bringing on adulthood but college students nevertheless. Keep the propaganda to yourself,” another outraged fan quipped.
Sacramento Observer Is African-American Owned: Timing Is Everything
To be fair, fans also brought receipts and pointed out that the Sacramento Observer is an African-American owned newspaper. So for the reporter to ask that specific question makes sense. It was just clearly not the ice-breaker you learn in Journalism 101. Usually that is a question that ends a press conference.
“stop being stupid in the comments,” said one fan in defense of the reporter. “should that have been the *first* question? no, but he can’t control when he’s called. a Black publication can’t ask Black players about how they’re empowering Black women?? goddamn.”
One netizen, who claims to be a reporter familiar with the situation said:
“FWIW, I sat next to this reporter on press row during the game. He does not typically cover sports. He was there specifically to do a feature story about how Dawn Staley has grown the game, so that was what inspired his question,” he clarified.
The way Staley and her crew handled that question and re-directed the reporter in how to introduce a question while staying aware of the human moment is exactly why they continue to produce winners each year.
