“Messed Up”

We can add college athletes to the growing list of people MAGA and white nationalists think it’s OK to target with harassment and threats

Today is the Championship game for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and thanks to players like Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, the women’s tournament has received more media attention than I’m used to, even in the days of UCONN’s dominance. As a lifelong college basketball fan (like Hunter S. Thompson, I was born in Kentucky), I find it wonderful to watch the women’s tournament gain the fan interest and accolades it deserves. Which is why today’s topic is so disheartening.

Two weeks ago, the University of Utah team, who were staying at a hotel in Idaho, were targeted with racist harassment not once but twice while they were trying to enjoy a team dinner. You’ve probably seen what happened in the news, but just in case you need a refresher, here are details from the Spokane Spokesman-Review:

On Thursday, the Utah team and another women’s team staying at the Coeur d’Alene Resort were walking to dinner at a restaurant on Sherman Avenue when the driver of a truck displaying a confederate flag began yelling the N-word and other racial slurs at members of the basketball teams, cheerleaders, the band and others in the traveling party.

As the team left the restaurant to return to their hotel, the driver of the truck was joined by “reinforcements from fellow racists,” according to the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. They followed the women back to the resort, hurling more hate speech and revving the engines of their trucks, menacing the players.

An even more detailed account can be found at the Idaho Statesman. 

Officials in Idaho tried to offer a public apology but said the apology was shut down by known far-right local operatives. In a press conference, Utah’s head coach Lynne Roberts and some of her players described the ordeal and its impact on the team, with Roberts saying, “For our players not to feel safe in an NCAA environment, it’s messed up.”

“Messed up” is a good way to put it. But as we’ve covered in the newsletter countless times this kind of harassment is all too common for public figures, especially Black Women and women of color. Angel Reese, one of the players who drove interest in the tournament this year, spoke out about the stream of threats and harassment she’s been subjected to since her team won last year’s championship:

“I don’t really get to stand up for myself,” she said, wiping away tears as she spoke. “I don’t really get to speak out on things because I just ignore (them). I just try to stand strong. … I’ve been through so much. I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times, death threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened, I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.

“I just want them to always know, I’m still a human. All this has happened since I won the national championship, and I said the other day I haven’t (been) happy since then. And it sucks, but I still wouldn’t change. I wouldn’t change anything, and I would still sit here and say I’m unapologetically me.”

I suspect Reese isn’t an outlier, and most of her fellow players are also subjected to a constant stream of harassment. This is especially true now that college athletes can monetize their name and likeness and generate income during their college tenure.

Threats, harassment, and violence shouldn’t be an expected part of daily life, but for too many Americans, it is. American society has a shocking level of tolerance for violence, even as it impacts more communities and people every year. 

This week, I shared my biggest takeaways from 8 years of writing, training, and consulting on these issues on LinkedIn. They’re relevant here, too:

1. Marginalized communities and the people within them remain under great threat. They make easy targets for bad actors, and institutions generally don’t do enough to protect them. Nor do institutions realize that having the backs of their most vulnerable staff and supporters is a key component of building resilience and fighting for a multiracial Democracy.

2. Inciting violence is now a standard tactic and strategy for bad actors. They’re exploiting our own vulnerabilities and our society’s overall tolerance for political violence and threats. We’ve made some societal progress in holding perpetrators accountable, but it’s a drop in the bucket of what’s needed. Until powerful people and institutions step up to say “enough,” this incitement will continue.

3. Threats and violence can derail anyone and any sector. This isn’t limited to politics and advocacy, and an increasing number of people just trying to live their lives or do their jobs find themselves under attack. Everyone from healthcare workers to librarians, parents of trans children, to election workers. Even employees and visitors of a butterfly sanctuary.

No one should have to deal with threats or violence incited against them to live their lives or do their jobs. No one should have a once-in-a-lifetime event ruined by racist assholes. It’s tempting to dismiss what happened as unique to Idaho, which has a history of white nationalist groups mobilizing and where MAGA Republicans hold the majority of political power. However, similar incidents happen all over the country every day, and most of the time, they don’t receive this level of media attention. As Angel Reese pointed out.

You also can’t dismiss this kind of activity as political. The perpetrators have a political agenda, but that agenda is white supremacy. These athletes weren’t engaging in politics or activism of any kind. They were trying to enjoy dinner with their teammates. 

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there’s been radio silence from all the usual suspects on the Trans moral panic beat. The ones who always pretend to care so deeply about the integrity of women’s sports. As usual, when women athletes are actually being harmed, the culture warriors have nothing to say. 

---

ICYMI

Elon Musk’s Supreme Court Endgame in Defamation Lawsuit (Slate)

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza explains Musk’s lawsuit strategy. “X’s gambit against Media Matters must be recognized as the cynical trick it is. Musk’s endgame is getting to the Supreme Court.”

The Reddit Pages That Investigate Influencers (Columbia Journalism Review)

I really enjoyed this piece about Reddit snarkers, turned consumer advocates. 

The New York Times Fails to Include Trans Voices in Majority of Articles About Trans Issues (GLAAD)

Staggering (and yet somehow not surprising) stat about the NYT’s coverage of trans issues: "A new study from Media Matters for America and GLAAD found that the newspaper failed to quote a trans person in 66% of its stories about anti-trans legislation from February 15, 2023, through February 15, 2024."

Is Generative AI the Answer for the Failures of Content Moderation? (Tech Policy Press)

I’m still a skeptic on generative AI as a content-moderation solution, even though I know machine learning already does a heavy lift for the tech platforms. But this article is a good overview of what might be possible.

---

Coda

I was quoted on NPR’s Morning Edition this week, talking to Tamara Keith about why so many voters believe the false conspiracy theory that Joe Biden won’t actually be on the ballot come November.

I also talked to Wired Magazine about how Kate Middleton conspiracy theories consumed the internet. I’m pretty sure this means I can call myself a Royal Expert now.

That’s all for now. Talk to you next Sunday!