Caitlin Clark, a former college women’s basketball superstar and current WNBA rookie who is driving much more attention to the league than it has traditionally received, was recently attacked by Chennedy Carter, who plays for the Chicago Sky. Now, after the attack on Clark and resulting drama, another WNBA rookie is claiming that really it’s the “younger white players” in the WNBA who have “privilege.”
That rookie is Cameron Brink, who plays for the Sparks. She also had a fanbase follow her to the WNBA from her college basketball days, though hers is nowhere near the size of the massive fanbase that Caitlin Clark built in college and brought over to the traditionally unwatched WNBA after she graduated from college and moved to the Indiana Fever.
Brink, speaking to Uproxx, a pop-culture outlet, said that her goal is to champion all members of the league as it grows thanks to some new stars. She said, commenting on that when asked about her goals with her fan base, “I could go way deeper into this, but I would just say growing the fan base to support all types of players.”
Continuing, she alleged that really it is the young and white players like her and =Clark who have “privilege” in the league, telling the outlet, “I will acknowledge there’s a privilege for the younger white players of the league. That’s not always true, but there is a privilege that we have inherently, and the privilege of appearing feminine.”
That’s when she got into describing why she thinks some members of her team and the league do not have such privilege in their lives, saying, “Some of my teammates are more masculine. Some of my teammates go by they/them pronouns. I want to bring more acceptance to that and not just have people support us because of the way that we look.”
She then returned the discussion to herself and her view on “privilege,” particularly what some call “pretty privilege,” saying, “I know I can feed into that because I like to dress femininely, but that’s just me. I want everyone to be accepted — not just paid attention to because of how they look.”
Brink also said, “The most tired narrative is that the vets are against the rookies — this old-school versus new-school narrative — and the narrative that the rookies need to be perfect. I feel like Clark has that the worst right now, but even I get that. She had three points the other night [against New York Liberty]. I had three points the other night [against Clark’s Indiana Fever]. We’re expected to be perfect. We were drafted to high-drafting teams coming off of losing seasons, which is fine.”
Similarly, Chicago Sky player Angel Reese, a rival of Clark’s from college basketball as well, recently claimed Clark is getting too much attention, saying, “I know I’ll go down in history.” Reese continued, “I’ll look back in 20 years and be like: ‘Yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person, it’s because of me too, and I want you to realize that.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: By JazzyJoeyD – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149081108
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