Angel Reese – our very own Bayou Barbie is certainly rubbing feathers and I’m loving it.
Why are folks mad at her showing emotion and passion for the game?
Why is it a problem when black women express themselves?
Why are our actions always called into question even when others do the exact same thing?
In recent times, women’s basketball has garnered significant attention and in particular, college basketball. I started following Angel Reese not too long again because I loved her confidence and passion for the game. And of course, her team – LSU has a passionate coach in Kim Mulkey.
Fast forward to LSU winning the National Championships and Reese threw up the ‘you can’t see me’ hand gesture to opposition star player, Caitlin Clark and folks are triggered calling Reese classless, excessive, a thug…even though Clark did the exact gesture a while back. But when it comes to black women, it’s always a different story.
When they do it, it’s okay but when we do it, it’s a problem. We saw the same thing with Serena Williams at US Open 2018 with the incident with the referee – her standing up for herself automatically gets her classed as the “angry black woman”.
When black women stand up for themselves or express emotions, it’s always a problem. Folks love to tell us how to act. Can folks let Black women be? We should be allowed to be human: express our emotions, show passion, enthusiasm, competitiveness, our femininity – whatever we want.
What gives me hope is that Reese does not care. I love that she’s her unapologetically. I love that she’s tossed the haters to the trash can where they belong. I love that she continues to trigger folks by embracing her blackness.
Folks are like “it’s not about race”.
Erm… we clearly see when the white girl does the same act, it’s not a problem. But when the black girl does it, she’s labelled ghetto, unprofessional, poor sportsmanship. Gimme a break.
Black women, continue to take up space unapologetically. Folks don’t like when we’re confident, winning, thriving, happy, passionate but guess what, we don’t need their validation! In the words of rapper TI, “validation is overrated”.
It sure is.
Angel Reese, bask in the win girl and continue to trigger the haters unapologetically.
We are behind you.