Caitlin Clark shines as the top star in women's college basketball. Her draw on TV is unmatched. Jemele Hill believes Clark's success is largely due to her being white.
In an interview with Uproxx, Hill expressed admiration for Clark's game. Yet, she thinks Clark gets undue credit for the sport's growth. "The sport has been on the rise for years, not just because of Caitlin Clark," Hill remarked.
"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."
And then Aliyah Boston, a black woman who played for South Carolina from 2019 to 2023:
"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]."
The narrative that Clark's prominence stems from her race has been echoed by others, including USA Today. The discourse suggests that the future faces of women's basketball should be black, acknowledging their foundational role in the sport.
Yet, accusations of racial bias towards Clark have surfaced, implicating figures like Sheryl Swoopes and Gilbert Arenas. Despite the controversy, Clark's appeal to the media is based on her ability to attract an audience, rather than her race.
Clark's impact is undeniable. She attracts viewers and engages fans in a way that other players, regardless of their background, have not matched.