Questions about responsibility and community:
Caitlin Clark is not pushing racist agendas herself. A lot of her fans are. Caitlin is a young woman, trying to navigate intense expectations, and being thrust into professional sports superstardom rather suddenly. How much can we really expect her to control racist fans? How much control does she really have over them anyway?
You can't always control your racist fans. But you can make them not your fans. If half of your fans are racist, then you can make it clear to those fans that you don't like them, and that you don't want them around. Let them choose another symbol. Don't let yourself become the figurehead of their racism.
If this seems like a lot to expect a young woman to do, remember that Haley and Paige do this. Remember that the Black women targeted by the racist fans, are the same age as Caitlin.
Caitlin Clark has made several attempts to indirectly distance herself from her racist fans.👍🏿
Unfortunately, this is something that she is going to have to deal with her entire career.
And addressing the racism more directly, the way that Paige and Hailey have done, would go a long way to reducing the racism experienced by Black women in the WNBA.
And yes, this would mean a reduction in Caitlin's fan base.
John Cena is a white man from Boston, whose brother is a cop. He was a pro wrestler, that was really popular in Boston and the Midwest, and popular among cops, firefighters, and the military.
He released this PSA, drastically reducing his popularity among white men, which is his base.
After his popularity among white men tanked, he doubled down on (politely) giving racist/sexist/homophobic/islamophobic/ableist fans the middle finger. He doesn't want those fans.