“Telling My Sons How Angel Reese Stood Toe to Toe With the KKK and Won”: Colorblind Racism and Intersectionality in Sports Discourse on Social Media

This study explores the dynamics of colorblind racism, intersectionality, and racially coded language in sports discourse on social media (Twitter/X), focusing on the contrasting public treatment of African American athlete Angel Reese and White American athlete Caitlin Clark before, during, and after the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. Analyzing 779,188 tweets using the Large Language Model (LLM) RoBERTa, we identify distinct patterns in fan interactions that reveal pervasive elements of colorblind racism and intersecting gender biases in the post-Title IX era. Although Clark and Reese performed nearly identical gestures at different times, Clark’s behavior was often perceived as more acceptable compared to Reese’s, underscoring how both racial and gender dynamics shape public perceptions. In addition, we observe a tendency among Twitter/X users to downplay the significance of racism (minimization of race) and engage in cultural racism, supporting colorblind racist framing. However, our findings also highlight an emerging counter-discourse that challenges these narratives, with supportive reactions toward Reese significantly outweighing the negative and directly opposing the colorblind racism frames. This research contributes to the literature on race, gender, sports, and digital media by offering real-time insights into how fan discourse both perpetuates and contests racial and gendered stereotypes.