Jemele Hill is back in the news again for comments about Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark.
The former ESPN talent opined on why Clark is more famous than any other player in the league, despite being a rookie, and people having an issue with it. “It’s not jealousy. It’s just the fact that in our society, black women are often erased from the picture,” Hill said
Hill also alluded to the fact that Clark is white and has a boyfriend, which she implies also boosts her social profile.
Jemele Hill on Caitlin Clark’s success:
“We would all be very naive if we didn’t say race and her sexuality played a role in her popularity. While so many people are happy for Caitlin’s success — including the players; this has had such an enormous impact on the game…”
Hill received plenty of backlash for her comments from X users who dismissed her comments as typical race-baiting.
With every situation like this, Clark becomes a most polarizing figure that White America is protecting at all costs. She’s been elevated to the front of the money and marketing train with her unprecedented $28M Nike signature shoe deal. And most recently she became the first athlete since Michael Jordan to have a signature basketball collection deal with Wilson Sporting Goods.
Black “gatekeepers” of race as it pertains to sports, politics and economics in this country, will continue to study the Caitlin Clark phenomenon very critically because of the clear disparities in how she’s covered and treated as compared to other players in the 70 percent Black league.
This isn’t the first time Hill got caught in the crossfire and incited a mini-race war by simply giving her educated opinion on The Caitlin Clark Effect.
Jemele Hill Criticized For Comments Made About Clark During NCAA Tournament
When Caitlin Clark went Kobe Bryant-postal on LSU, scoring 41 points and helping Iowa advance to the Final Four for the second straight season, the Jemele Hill haters came out in full swing.
They challenged comments she made prior to the game, that the market was oversaturated with Clark coverage and college basketball’s all-time leading scorer got more love and credit than deserved for elevating women’s hoops because she is a white player.
Twitter struck back at Hill’s comments because Clark had a good game, but can’t Jemele Hill be right and Clark still be great for women’s basketball at the same time?
Clark has been the darling of most mainstream media and the catalyst for this women’s college basketball explosion that has people talking about the golden girls instead of the big boys who usually rule the March Madness landscape.
Being a white basketball star always makes for a polarizing figure, because we don’t have many of them. The Clark dynamic has taken over conversations about race, competition and women’s sports.
Hill’s comments came on the heels of Ice Cube offering Caitlin Clark $5 million to join his Big3 League and Black Twitter, former and current WNBA players lost their minds because they felt there were other choices such as Angel Reese or maybe even some current Black WNBA players that Cube could have chosen.
Everyone chimed in leading up to the rematch between Clark and LSU star Reese, who got the best of Clark in the 2023 NCAA Tournament final, before Clark exacted her revenge in 2024.
Jemele Hill Says Caitlin Clark Gets Mega Coverage Because She’s White
Former ESPN host Hill said that she had a problem with how the media is covering Caitlin Clark, prior to the win over LSU.
That of course created a firestorm, because when Hill speaks it’s usually to point out a misrepresentation or some controversial issue in gender or race, which usually automatically divides people in the conversation. There’s a contingent of right-wing media and affiliates who label her as a “racial rabble rouser.”
Hill is never one to back down from a good showdown and argues that, despite Clark’s greatness, the media covers white players like Clark — and UConn star Paige Bueckers — more than great Black players like A’ja Wilson.
“Everything about this sport has been trending up for years now. It did not just start with Caitlin Clark,” Hill said in an interview with Megan Armstrong of Uproxx.
Women’s Hoop Explosion Didn’t Start With Caitlin Clark
Women’s basketball certainly didn’t start with Caitlin Clark. There’s a laundry list of transcending and pioneering women’s players from Cheryl Miller to Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi to Dawn Staley.
Clark, however, is undoubtedly the player who has ignited the interest of the casual fan. So while Clark certainly proved her superiority as a basketball player, the oversaturated media coverage and the attacks on and failure to give equal coverage to other great players is Hill’s gripe. And she’s not wrong.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers, a white college basketball star, expressed the same sentiment Hill was alluding too, during her ESPYS speech in 2021.
“A study I cited recently for a piece I wrote in The Atlantic [found that] when you compare [the coverage] of, say, someone like (Paige) Bueckers, Sabrina Ionescu, or Caitlin Clark to A’ja Wilson, who has dominated basketball at every single level. She’s probably the best player in the world right now. And I’m not trying to act like she gets no coverage, but the coverage that sometimes non-white women get, or specifically Black women get, is not even close. It’s two-to-one,” Hill added.
Hill pointed to Clark’s current Fever teammate Aliyah Boston, who was dominant in college, but didn’t get the attention Clark received for losing in the National Championship game twice.
“I mean, Aliyah Boston was the best player in college just a couple of years ago. And she did not get even a 10th of this media coverage that Caitlin Clark did. Now, some people would say, ‘Oh, it’s her game.’ But I don’t think it was that. She’s tremendous on television, and I’m thinking, what a missed opportunity for the national media to really elevate who she was as a person. Caitlin Clark seems to be a great personality, but it is not like Caitlin Clark is walking around saying crazy stuff. They’re just covering her excellence, and that’s good enough. Whereas it feels like for Black athletes to get the same amount of coverage or even fair coverage, there has to be something extra [beyond basketball].”
We all know that basketball is one of those sports that often inspire conversations surrounding race, because it is dominated by Black athletes. Hill is right, that mainstream media has put all of its resources and coverage potential behind Clark. Hill will also admit that has benefited women’s basketball.
Conversations like these are what’s hyping the women’s basketball scene right now. And whether you agree with Hill or not or even understand what she’s saying, Caitlin Calrk is getting disproportionate coverage and deservedly so.
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