Does this t-shirt make me look racist?

 I started this post on the plane ride back from a conference in CA in November. Conferences always gave me a spurt of writing energy. But the end of the fall 2024 semester got in the way of its completion and transcription (it was easier to pull out a notebook rather than my laptop on the plane). It is still relevant and so...

I have been wondering if the (University of) Iowa women's basketball t-shirt (and sweatshirt) I wore last year now after the end of that 2023-24 run to the final four and the subsequent 2024 WNBA season. Last year, an observer might have wondered if I was a bandwagon fan, i.e., experiencing the Caitlin Clark effect. I am an Iowa alum (PhD 2013). with a complicated relationship to Iowa athletics (see the myriad of Title IX issues, racism within programs, incompetent and violent coaching, etc.) And though I have watched women's college basketball for some time, it's mostly because I want to support women's sports. I understand very little about strategy and I cannot figure out the fouls, which is why I will always chose to sit in a cold arena watching women's collegiate ice hockey drinking watery hot chocolate. 

Yes, during my time at Iowa I did watch the Hawks, And yes, I started paying more attention during the regular season (I was always a March Madness follower) when Clark started becoming a--and then the--thing and even travelled to a post-season game in 2024 to meet up with fellow fans where we saw a LOT of band wagon-ers (literally I saw people change t-shirts from LSU to Iowa in between games). But I did not much care, when wearing my fan gears, if people thought I was new to this fandom. 

As the racism--from fans & media--grew more pronounced during the Clark era primarily, but not only, related to the "rivalry" with LSU and Angel Reese, being an Iowa fan became something I had to grapple with. Because of the aforementioned issues with Iowa athletics (and even despite its storied history of women's athletics), I had never called myself an "Iowa fan." But apparently, the winning and the hype and the feel-good stories allowed me to separate myself from the racism (and sexism and homophobia) that is not very underground at Iowa. But to dismiss the history and its current manifestations is a mistake. 

The university was sued by former Black football players for racism perpetuated by that program that is still coached by the same person! A few years ago an Iowa fan shouted a racial epithet at a University of Wisconsin wrestler. And eons ago, as a grad student I was gifted nice seats among season ticket holders for the game against Rutgers, coached by former Iowa coach and legend C Vivian Stringer. It was this big thing that the university was making into its own event (i.e., not just a basketball game). The season ticket holders next to me remarked at one point during the game that they could not tell who was who on the Rutgers team. (This was also before the Don Imus incident.) In other words, all Black women look the same. 

An approach that women's basketball is somehow separate from all that is neither sustainable, desirable, nor realistic. It is one athletics department, one university and too many "we don't condone that behavior" statements. 

This is the approach the WNBA and Indiana Fever took in the 2023-24 season as so many Clark fans "followed" her to the Fever where many remained Clark fans and by extension (kind of) Fever fans but not so much WNBA fans. (Someone needs to do a study on this--individual versus team versus org versus women's sports fandom. I don't do a lot of quant work but happy to help with literature and framing--call me 😀.)

Discussion ensued about atmosphere and safe spaces and women-centric/supportive spaces. And though I love having those discussions, there was not a whole lot of action--that I saw--beyond statements, Clark herself did very little beyond the bar-on-the-ground condemnation of racist taunts despite her fairly protected platform as a white, straight multi-millionaire.  

So what to do, what to do? For now, I have decided to wear my stuff and use the opportunity, when anyone asks, to--in some way--state my fandom and condemn the behavior of those who should be doing more/better.