WNBA star Caitlin Clark may have made some comments about the "privilege" she has in being white after she was named Time's athlete of the year, but that doesn't mean the woke mob will forgive her.
After Megyn Kelly went after her for the "self-flagellation" involved, Clark doubled down, as she not only repeated how she has "white privilege," but also spoke about "sharing my truth," which is even more of a buzzword. It was a phrase that Scott Jennings was just not having, as he tore the entire concept apart during Thursday's "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip."
The end of the show, during which they played clips of Clark's remarks, featured a sort of face off between Jennings and Cari Champion, whom host Abby Phillip quipped "might also be our Caitlin Clark correspondent." Jennings and Champion have gone up against each other for panel discussions before. And, just like when Jennings was reminding Champion of key facts about CNN's own reporting on the political balance of X, there were some fireworks.
Just before Phillip called upon Jennings, Champion herself implied that Clark was being treated so well because she's white. "She has a privilege. She has been in this league for so, what, a year? And she makes more money than the people who built this league? And she understands there's a reason, not because she shoots the ball well," Champion claimed.
As Champion and Phillip both wondered, then, why it was that Clark was supposedly "bullied," Jennings launched right into dismantling the nonsense that is "my truth."
"Number one, you know, whether you're an athlete or anyone else, if I hear you use the phrase 'my truth,' I immediately then discount everything else you say. Because there isn't my truth or your truth, there's just the truth," he aptly pointed out. Jennings barely got much further before Champion repeatedly insisted that "that's not true." When he was able to complete his sentence, though, he pointed out that "when you start using phrases like that, it tells me that your brain has been captured by something that I don't really respect."
Jennings also made some worthwhile points, though, about why it is that Clark has had been granted all of these accolades that she rightfully received, specifically how ratings went up, thanks to her. "But you know the league still lost like $40 million this year," he reminded, which even Champion agreed with. Derek Hunter touched further upon this in his Townhall column for Sunday morning, candidly titled, "Let The WNBA Die Already."
As Jennings dared to wonder aloud about what it was that these women built, whom Clark and panelists like Champion and Bakari Sellers praised, the conversation once more became heated Champion especially took issue with Jennings offering that the WNBA is "still running" not merely because of the black women who built it, but also "because of the investors."
"You stop it," Champion insisted, no less than five times, as Phillip soon after had to jump in to call the panelists to speak "one at a time."
Returning to the idea of "my truth," Sellers felt the need to insert race into the conversation. "This is the problem with the conversation about race in this country that we've never tackled because it's two things fundamentally wrong with what Scott said. The first is, when you say things like my truth, right, and you just tune that out. My truth is just vastly different than yours. It's not just the truth," he claimed. "In fact, one of the things I would like to just help you understand is that the definition of white supremacy, do you know what the definition of white supremacy is? It's when you feel like equality is oppression," Sellers continued, a sentiment that Champion agreed with.
"And for some reason, for some reason, it gets so entangled because people just simply want equality and you feel like that's taking away something from you. I'm not there saying that anybody at the table is a white supremacist, but what I am trying to do is at least educate you on what the truth is," Sellers then went on to say.
Sellers' points were not all necessarily bad ones, as he offered how "we both come from different--we want the same America for our children, but we come from different places. We don't necessarily want equality, some of us just want equity, right?"
As Jennings aptly offered, "that's a different statement." It is. Clark could have made the same points that she made by phrasing it in way that discussed her "experience," perhaps.
Later in the panel discussion, Catherine Rampsell also chimed in, claiming that Clark has been "bland and gracious" with her remarks. She also offered that "I feel like it says more about the people who are getting offended by it than [Clark]," which Phillip agreed with.
As Rampsell continued to emphasize her view that Clark was being "gracious," Jennings offered that those people are perhaps "just disappointed that [Clark] appears to have been captured by the woke mob."
The panel discussion continued to get heated, but that's nevertheless when Jennings was able to make what was arguably his most prophetic point. "I feel a little bad for her because she's going to learn that it will never be enough. No matter how much of the phrasing, no matter how much of the groveling you do, it will never be enough for the people in that league that hate her guts," he said.
As Champion and Phillip took issue with the point, Jennings stressed the key point of how Clark speaks "the language of pandering."
It didn't take Jennings very long at all to be proven correct. In sharing a CNN clip from Friday morning, when Washington Mystics co-owner Sheila Johnson appeared on the network, Jennings emphasized the same points he had just made the night before.
Johnson, during her appearance for the outlet, as well as with her interview with BET, criticized Time for singling out Clark, wondering and lamenting why the "whole WNBA" wasn't put on the cover. "When you just keep singling out one player, it creates hard feelings," she also claimed.
Even as Johnson looked to downplay Clark's success, the CNN chyron focused on the WNBA successes during the segment, including how the 2024 season had its best TV viewership in 24 years and highest attendance in 22 years.
“Dear God! I’ll give the order!”
