Jemele Hill becomes surprising voice of reason in Caitlin Clark-Morgan Wallen "controversy"
The discourse around Caitlin Clark walking out with Morgan Wallen at his concert last Saturday is so far off the rails that it turned Jemele Hill into a voice of reason. Yes, you read that correctly.
For background, the usual race idolaters expressed fierce outrage over Clark associating with Wallen, who once used a racial slur in 2021. Van Lathan and Jalen Rose's adult daughter were among the loudest critics. An ESPN guest writer named Jayson Buford published this gem on Substack:
"Caitlin Clark is beloved by most people despite her proximity to the type of whiteness that is inherently scary," Buford wrote. "So why did she walk out with Morgan Wallen? It's so blatantly corny. Just be cool."
DOUBLE STANDARD: IT'S ONLY A CONTROVERSY WHEN CAITLIN CLARK WALKS OUT WITH MORGAN WALLEN
Given the racial framing surrounding Clark, it would've been easy to assume Hill would join the fray. However, Hill actually defended the Fever guard.
"On the latest episode of SPOLITICS Live, I ask why Caitlin Clark is getting smoke for walking out with country star Morgan Wallen at his concert when Peyton Manning, Travis Kelce, Myles Garrett, Marshawn Lynch, and many other male athletes have done the exact same thing," Hill said.
And Patrick Mahomes.
That was the same point OutKick made on Monday. The list of athletes, both black and white, who have walked out with Wallen is long. Yet somehow, it only became controversial when Clark did it.
Now, Hill avoids upsetting her audience by framing the disparate response to Clark as a gender issue. That is not accurate. WNBA player Paige Bueckers and Coach Dawn Staley posed and hugged Chris Brown at his concert last year without any pushback. Whatever you think of Wallen, Brown is a serial abuser. He committed violent crimes. At worst, Wallen committed a word crime.
The issue is that various black commentators and influencers have an unusual disdain for Clark because she is a straight white woman who is the biggest star in a league marketed around identity politics.
Historically, Jemele Hill has fit squarely into that crowd.
She previously defended WNBA players for targeting, hard fouling and bullying Clark, dismissing the treatment as mere "competitiveness." She also claimed Clark didn't face the same online harassment as black female athletes, a post she later deleted after police arrested a man accused of stalking Clark.
Note: Clark is the most famous player in the league by far. She almost certainly receives more online harassment than anyone else in the WNBA.
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Nonetheless, we are surprised to see Hill stand up for Clark. It must've been challenging for her to do so. And she backed her point, noting that some people can separate the art from the artist, even though she cannot always do so.
"[I'm] done with Kanye. Been done with Kanye. Can't do it," Hill explained. "R. Kelly, been done with R. Kelly. Can't do it."
She then compared the reaction to Wallen with the public treatment of Chris Brown:
"Chris Brown did his time. So okay. Well, some would say Morgan Wallen did too. He apologized. He went to rehab. He gave half a million dollars to black organizations. They would say he did too."
Fair enough.
Few people in the media have benefited more from manufactured claims of racism than Jemele Hill has. We also maintain that she plays a racist character online for clout, when she has spent her entire career surrounding herself with White colleagues, agents, managers and bosses.
It's an act. Racial division pays well, especially when you play a black person who makes nasty comments about white people.
Still, credit where it's due. Hill provided a refreshing, nuanced response to the Caitlin Clark-Morgan Wallen "controversy."