The Fear Machine Churns And Churns
Right-wing media has found Caitlin Clark very useful
Caitlin Clark is either the greatest player in WNBA history or a damsel in distress, depending on the narrative required by right-wing media outlets.
You may have missed a recent development in our cursed political environment: Commenters on far-right cable news networks and YouTube channels are obsessed with the WNBA, the league that recently blessed them with a blonde white lady who happily – and perhaps ignorantly – pushes the bad-faith opposition to "biological males" in women's sports.
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The WNBA has also given these media outlets the bloodiest of red meat: Images and video of what appears to be a lily-white young woman being brutalized by Black women. In the push to position white Americans as the victims of diversity, perhaps nothing could be more useful than these pictures.
The explicitly fascist network known as Newsmax is the latest to carefully edit footage of Clark falling to the floor and fighting for possession of the basketball with her (Black) opponents (this happened in late June; outlets are still running with it). It's a standard fight for the ball – after Clark falls on her face for no particularly reason – and it ends with a Clark opponent placing her hand on or near Clark's throat.
I've watched it a dozen times. There's nothing remarkable about it. It's not Aaron Donald trying to rip out an opponent's larynx like Dalton from Roadhouse. It's nothing, really, expect the natural goings-on of a basketball scramble, with everyone involved flailing and jabbing and poking in hopes of securing the basketball.
Reacting to a foul on Caitlin Clark, Newsmax hosts suggests that the police may need to be called on WNBA players: “If the league won't do anything, I think the cops have to show up and start making arrests”
— Media Matters for America (@mmfa.bsky.social) August 6, 2026 at 10:06 AM
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That, however, wouldn't serve Nexsmax or its rabid, terrified audience of baby boomers. The clip of Clark tripping over herself and falling to the floor as if thrown from a helicopter was carefully and cynically edited to make it look as if Black players were intentionally stomping on her as she lay on her back and – for some reason – refused to get up. The next thing you know, there's a hand coming down on Clark's throat, which prompts her to act like she's been pierced by an arrow from a hundred yards away.
This, no matter your politics or worldview, is powerful imagery: The face of the WNBA – the lady on the national ads – looks like she's having the shit kicked out of her by her merciless (Black) opponents. "She's surrounded," the Nexsmax talk show host says before cutting himself off, for the bad-faith concern for Clark – and white WNBA player in general – can't be explicitly based on racism. It must remain implicit, unsaid, vague.
Denny Carter
This Nexsmax host then suggests local police should get involved in what could be called a loose ball foul against Clark. If WNBA refs are not going to step in and save the damsel from the hoards going after her, he says, then the cops must do something. This instantly criminalizes the Black players involved and solidifies Clark as a victim in desperate and immediate need of state intervention. The military escorted Black students into newly-integrated schools in the mid-20th century, after all. Why can't Clark be given the same courtesy?
These media outlets, the ones coordinating with the American fascist movement, know exactly how powerful these images can be in stimulating the fear centers of white folks in the United States. For years and years white people in the US have been told that the progress of the 20th century – the expansion of basic rights – has left them behind and created a titled playing field in which they are on the losing end. This is why the Trump regime has rolled out policy after policy under the presumption that people of color and LGBTQ folks and women have it too good today. In the right's unreality, white folks need the government on their side if things are to be balanced – made right again.
And so white people tune in to their favorite right-wing cable show every night and watch a clip of Caitlin Clark appearing to be trampled and attacked by Black women. They play this clip again and again until the white brain is thrumming with absolute terror and fury and outrage. Look what they're doing to our people, they say. Look at this poor girl being bludgeoned by people I find terrifying.
Those fear centers fully engaged, the white brain – the white person – is ready for any and all suggestions on What To Do to solve this problem.
Follow Denny Carter on Bluesky at @dennycarter.bsky.social.
