Clothesline Privilege |
Walk through this with me for a second.
Imagine you're jogging down a basketball court on a fast break, minding your business, mid-layup, doing the exact thing you get paid to do. Someone comes up from behind and clotheslines you across the face and neck hard enough that officials review the tape and decide, yeah, that one gets you ejected. You pop up. You're a little heated, understandably, because a stranger just tried to remove your head from your shoulders on national television. And within minutes, the person who did it posts two words on social media aimed squarely at you: "WHITE PRIVILEGE."
Not "my bad." Not "heat of the moment." Not even a defiant "I don't regret it." Just an accusation, lobbed at the person still rubbing her jaw, that the foul she just absorbed to the face is somehow evidence of a systemic advantage she enjoys.
This actually happened Saturday. Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington delivered a Flagrant 2 foul to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham during a fast-break layup, connecting with her head and neck badly enough to get tossed from the game. Cunningham, not exactly known for backing down from anybody, got up, went after Carrington, and had to be physically separated by a teammate. Afterward, Cunningham called the foul intentional, in language colorful enough that I won't reprint the family-newspaper........