Sheryl Swoopes and ‘Black Girl Tragic’ target Caitlin Clark and America

Nearly 100 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan stormed my great-grandfather’s home in Kentucky, dragged him out of his house, beat him, and carried him to a lynching tree.

My grandmother, Lovie Kennedy, witnessed the assault. A small child, she screamed and wept uncontrollably. Her daddy was being executed right before her eyes.

Sheryl Swoopes can’t forgive Caitlin Clark for being a white star in a league and sport dominated by black lesbians.

Unbeknownst to her and the executioners, her father was a freemason. Standing at the tree, with a noose being prepared for his neck, my great-grandfather made some sort of hand or posture gesture that could only be understood by a fellow mason. Luckily for him, one of the Klansmen was a mason and objected to his killing. His life spared, my great-grandfather and his family fled Kentucky for Indianapolis.

For years, my grandmother had an intense fear and hatred of white people. According to her frequent retelling of the story, the fear and hatred fled her mind and soul the moment she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Everyone called her Mama Lovie. The last five decades of her life, she emoted love and positive energy. She dedicated her life to spreading the good news in the gospels, serving the 25th Street Baptist Church, and making sure her grandkids had a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I think about Mama Lovie frequently. She passed away 25 years ago. In her final years, she suffered Alzheimer’s disease. Eventually, the only words she could speak coherently were Scripture. She could recite her favorite verses — and she had hundreds — verbatim and where they appeared in the Bible.

No one has had more influence on my life than Mama Lovie. Her memory is a blessing and a curse for me. It’s a reminder of the way things were, the way black women used to represent themselves and define their identity by their faith rather than their politics.

I thought about Mama Lovie this morning when I reflected on basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes’ intense animus toward WNBA star Caitlin Clark.

Earlier this year, when Clark was shattering college basketball records at the University of Iowa, Swoopes trashed Clark as an overhyped gimmick. She claimed Clark was 25, played five or six seasons at Iowa, and shot the ball 40 times per game. It was all bad information.

When questioned whether her comments were motivated by bigotry, Swoopes claimed, “Black people can’t be racist,” and that she has white friends.

And now, this week, with the WNBA on a month-long Olympics hiatus, Swoopes has returned to her Caitlin Clark bashing. Clark is the overwhelming favorite to win WNBA Rookie of the Year. She remains the biggest star in all of American sports. On her “Queens of the Court” podcast, Swoopes championed Angel Reese as WNBA Rookie of the Year, stated that Clark’s Indiana Fever would make the playoffs without her, and insinuated that a Fever role player was actually more valuable than Clark.

Sheryl Swoopes hates Caitlin Clark. Swoopes is using her racial jealousy and Clark’s clout to elevate herself. It’s textbook bigot behavior. She is masking feelings of inferiority with bigotry.

The widely repeated trope that “black people can’t be racist because black people lack power” is laughable. The truth is many black people believe their bigotry is justified and acceptable given America’s history.

They don’t believe in forgiveness, a tenet of Christianity.

Jesus forgave the very people who crucified him. My grandmother, a follower of Christ, forgave the people who attempted to lynch her father.

Sheryl Swoopes can’t forgive Caitlin Clark for being a white star in a league and sport dominated by black lesbians.

Black women have abandoned traditional Christianity, and black men have followed them.

Too many Americans, black and white, have replaced Christianity with the “Black Girl Tragic” religion. They worship delusional, angry black women. You can see it in all walks of life. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris converted to the faith 40 years ago when she enrolled at Howard University, a historically black college, and joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She eschewed her Indian and Jamaican heritage to adopt a black identity.

It’s all lunacy destroying the foundation of American ideals.

The Black Girl Tragic religion avoids common sense, fairness, and facts. It rationalizes illogic and rewards emotion. It twerks, gyrates, and ignores negative outcomes. It baits men into thinking and acting like women. It believes words are as damaging as sticks and stones.

Sixty years ago, politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan urged President Lyndon Johnson and America to invest in empowering the black man and supporting the black nuclear family. Mainstream media and black elites framed the “Moynihan Report” as racist. Johnson pivoted to the Great Society and empowered the single black woman.

These decisions undermined traditional Christian male leaders and produced this new religion — Black Girl Tragic.

It’s a cult that rejects Jesus and will choose death over deprogramming.