I tuned into my first WNBA game this weekend for one reason: the growing noise around Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. The headlines, the viral clips of physical play, the debates over whether certain players were being targeted, and it all pulled me in. I wanted to see for myself. In the first quarter of the Fever’s matchup against the Chicago Sky, I got my answer.
With under two minutes left in the opening quarter, Cunningham drove for a layup. Sky forward DiJonai Carrington chased her down and delivered a forearm to the face and neck that sent Cunningham crashing to the floor. The shot still went in. Cunningham got up immediately and confronted Carrington. Officials reviewed the play, upgraded it to a Flagrant 2 for windup, impact, and follow-through, and ejected Carrington. The contact was clear on replay. It was not a basketball play.
Minutes later, from the locker room, Carrington posted two words on social media: “WHITE PRIVILEGE,” tagging the Indiana Fever. That post is indefensible. It takes a straightforward excessive foul, one that left a player on the ground after a shot to the head, and reframes the consequences as racial favoritism. Cunningham is white. Carrington is black. In Carrington’s telling, the ejection itself becomes evidence of systemic bias rather than accountability for unnecessary contact. This is not analysis. It is an excuse that weaponizes race to evade responsibility.
The incident does not stand alone. Cunningham has spent much of this season defending teammate Caitlin Clark against what she and many observers describe as a pattern of physical targeting: cheap shots, late hits, and uneven officiating that too often goes unpunished until public outcry forces the league’s hand. When white WNBA players succeed at a high level and draw attention, the physicality directed at them is frequently minimized or explained away. When those same players push back, the response is to inject race. Carrington’s post fits that pattern perfectly: the foul is secondary, the real issue, she suggests, is the color of the player who got hit.
Cunningham has made herself an even clearer target by stating the obvious on a different front. She has publicly opposed biological males competing in women’s sports, arguing it is common sense to protect girls and women in locker rooms and on the court. She has emphasized that her position is not hatred but a defense of fairness and safety rooted in biological reality.
That stance has drawn protests outside games, harsh media columns accusing her of “anti-black” and “anti-trans” motives, and open hostility from activists and some within the league’s orbit. In a climate where dissent on sex-based categories is treated as heresy, a white woman who refuses to pretend biology is optional becomes fair game, not only for verbal attacks but for the physical ones that follow.
THE WNBA HAS A BLACK ENTITLEMENT PROBLEM
What we are watching is not neutral rough play. It is selective enforcement of standards coupled with racial narrative-spinning. Hard fouls against high-profile white players are too often excused or racialized after the fact. Legitimate calls against those fouls are dismissed as “privilege.” Meanwhile, the same voices who demand “equity” show little interest in equal protection on the court. The result is a double standard that treats white athletes as acceptable outlets for resentment, whether over success, media attention, or refusal to conform on gender ideology.
Basketball should not require identity politics to function. A forearm to the face is a forearm to the face regardless of the race of the player who threw it or the one who absorbed it. Carrington’s “white privilege” post does not expose injustice. It reveals a willingness to subordinate the game, player safety, and basic fairness to a racial script. Fans who simply want to watch women compete without the constant overlay of grievance politics deserve better. So do the players who keep showing up and taking the hits.
Bob Capano has been an adjunct professor for 25 years and has worked in senior positions for NYC Republican and Democratic officials. You can find him on X @bobcapano.