I did a study some years ago of US vs European coverage of the Williams tennis sisters because I noticed the slant toward the negative in US coverage. Anything they did right was attributed to luck or brute strength; any mistakes were highlighted. (Serena once mentioned in an interview that she thought race might be why her intellectual grasp of tennis was rarely acknowledged.) White players would be praised for strategy and sympathy oozed out for errors. Felt like how I was treated on the job.

I was right. Papers in British English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian were much more even-handed in coverage. When I wrote about this for the campus paper—no judgement, just reporting facts, the outcry from white male students was shocking. This memory has come back to me as the Reese/Clark situation evolves. As my mother used to say: Black women, can’t win for losing. (Btw, Mom played college basketball)