Conservative commentator Scott Jennings received swift backlash online after he went on a tirade about a so-called “woke mob” during a CNN panel discussion about Caitlin Clark and her recent comments about white privilege.
During an appearance on “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” last week, Jennings complained about Clark saying she recognized her privilege as a white person in the WNBA — a league where the majority of players are Black.
The Indiana Fever star, who was named Time magazine’s 2024 Athlete of the Year, told the publication in an interview published last week that she thinks it’s important to highlight the fact that the league was essentially built on Black athletes.
“I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Clark said during a discussion about her stardom and brand opportunities. “A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them.”
“The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing,” she added.
In his subsequent comments on “NewsNight,” Jennings discounted the past efforts and historic accomplishments of Black WNBA players, as well as efforts to boost investment in women’s sports, by pointing out the league’sfinancialwoes.
“What did they build? A league that loses money every year?” he quipped.
Phillip, the host, later expressed puzzlement that it should be “controversial” for Clark to acknowledge the role Black women have played in growing the WNBA.
“Why are people attacking her for that? I don’t understand,” Phillip said.
“I think they’re just disappointed that she appears to have been captured by the woke mob,” Jennings responded. “And here’s the disappointment: I feel a little bad for her, because she’s going to learn that it will never be enough.”
“No matter how much of the phrasing, no matter how much of the groveling you do, it will never be enough for the people in that league that hate her guts,” he continued.
“Why do you assume that she is trying to pander?” Phillip asked.
“Because I hear the language. It’s the language of the pandering,” he said. (Watch the exchange below.)
Jennings’ remarks garnered wide backlash on X, the former Twitter. One person wondered why Jennings thinks he “knows more about the WNBA than a woman who is playing in the league.”
“Please tell [Jennings] to stop using the word ‘woke,’” another person wrote.
Other conservative commentators have expressed outrage over Clark’s interview with Time. Former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly slammed the WNBA star on X last week, calling her remarks “condescending,” “fake” and “sad.”
And conservatives like Jennings often level terms like “woke” and “woke mob” in conversations about white supremacy, white privilege and racial discrimination, among other injustices affecting marginalized communities. “Woke” was a term used in Black communities that referred to an awareness of racial and other systemic injustices ― before conservatives began wielding it as an all-purpose pejorative to describe, essentially, anyone interested in acknowledging inequalities and inequities, or even treating marginalized people with respect.
LaGarrett King, associate professor of social studies education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo, called the co-opting of the term “woke” a “dangerous approach” led by conservative politicians and pundits.
“Woke is meant to be a phrase that [elicits] awareness around societal issues and injustice,” he told HuffPost in an email. “I think there may be a problem with the performative aspects some people do around the phrase, but at the essence it is about making society more equitable and kinder.”
“If we have a society that feels like societal injustice is imaginary and not worth the time and effort, we are not living up to our ideas we proclaim to believe in,” he said.
Why are conservatives so angered by Clark’s remarks about white privilege?
King, who is the director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the Graduate School of Education, said he believes that many people initially tried to use Clark as a “political pawn.”
“When Clark stepped on a talking point from conservatives that white privilege does not exist, it destroyed one of their central arguments,” he said. “Clark, therefore, does not fit their narrative.”
“I think that conservative commentators are outraged over Caitlin Clark’s comments because their movement is committed to restoring the white supremacist governmental structures and cultural hegemony that [existed] in the United States from 1619 to 1968,” said Alvin Tillery Jr., a professor of political science and African American studies at Northwestern University.
Tillery, who directs the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern, told HuffPost that he believes many people hoped Clark would be, for the WNBA, a “Great White Hope” — a white athlete who could rise to the top as a star in a league historically dominated by Black players.
But, Tillery said, Clark speaking about white privilege “ruins their entire frame on her.”
What did Jennings mean when he used the term ‘woke mob’?
“The ‘woke mob’ reference is common parlance among those who defend white supremacist expressions and other utterances that marginalized groups (women, LGBTQ+, disabled) critique,” Tillery said.
“Interestingly, they never see themselves as part of an ‘un-woke’ or ‘asleep’ mob when they rush to gin up criticism of a figure like Caitlin Clark,” he added.
King said he believes the term is in many ways a “dog whistle for Blackness,” and what some perceive as “anti-American” ideas.
Jennings’ “patronizing” accusation that Clark has been “captured by the woke mob” implies that she’s a victim with “little agency of her thoughts, behaviors or actions,” King said.
Bryan Adamson, law professor and associate dean of diversity and inclusion at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, told HuffPost he doesn’t think it’s a “coincidence” that the term “woke” has been “turned into a slur by the far right as a mocking response” to outcries over injustices involving violence against Black people.
He said the “co-opting of the term ‘woke’ (some have called it ‘recodifying’) is nothing new in the history of social movements and ideological debates.”
Adamson said that those who have sought to redefine “woke” serve as “just another example of whites acting out of racial discomfort.”
“That is, the idea that any topic, any discussion that ‘de-centers’ whiteness… is of no value,” he continued, citing the Black Lives Matter movement and the desire for proactive institutional efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion as examples.
Tillery said the term “woke” has been “weaponized as part of the Republican Party’s nationwide crusade to convince white people that they are the real victims of racism and racial inequality in American society.”
“Sadly,” he said, “most Americans are so profoundly ignorant of the racial structure of our society and its root causes that it actually works to some extent.”
Why it’s crucial that Clark spoke out about white privilege
King said the WNBA star’s remarks are “extremely important” for several reasons. For starters, Clark’s comments were factually correct. “The WNBA would not have been successful without the Black women who helped charter the league,” King said.
He also said it’s important that Clark’s fan base hear her message, especially since some fans have accused other WNBA players of being more physical with Clark during games. (Clark, for her part, has simply chalked up the physicality on the court to basketball’s “competitive” nature.)
“What was happening to Clark in the league was not out of the ordinary. For anyone who has played competitive sports understands that the new heralded player will get tested to see how good they are,” King said. He noted that “the same thing happened to Michael Jordan and Steph Curry.”
Tillery said it’s “wonderful” that Clark “understands that the WNBA brand existed before her,” and that “the majority of the talented players that built the foundation for her were denied the kind of platform and sponsorships that she has achieved at such an early stage in her career.”
Adamson believes it would have been “irresponsible” of Clark not to learn and embrace the history of the WNBA. Clark demonstrated her respect for the women who built the league, he said.
“With that, there is an importance in ‘de-centering’ herself, or more importantly, her ‘whiteness’ from an appraisal of the value or impact of the WNBA,” he said.
What should you do if you’re accused of being ‘too woke’
King said it’s important to “express our voice for the greater good.”
“I am about education,” he said, recommending that you respond to deceptive arguments with evidence from reputable sources. “I am of the belief that all of this rhetoric is a distraction from folks who are doing really good work to make society better.”
Tillery said it’s important to “know your history and deploy it against the ignorant.”
“The easy retort that Caitlin Clark could make to people like Megyn Kelly and Scott Jennings is that systemic racism is real,” Tillery said. “We have pictures and videos of the Jim Crow era that are readily accessible on the internet.”
“While we changed our laws in the 1960s and 1970s, we never did anything to combat the social and economic inequalities that built up over the 400 years prior to changing those laws,” he continued. “There is no need arguing with the willfully ignorant with such powerful evidence on your side.”
