Donald Trump caught in yet another racist controversy over White House sports championship invites
Donald Trump’s consistently racist words and policies have led a number of championship athletes to decline their customary visits to the White House. Numerous members of the New England Patriots refused to show up earlier this year. After Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry questioned aloud whether he would attend, Trump disinvited him. It turns out, however, that Trump has displayed an overtly racist pattern when it comes to these invites which goes beyond Curry.
For the past quarter century, every NCAA women’s basketball championship team has been invited to the White House. But when the South Carolina Gamecocks won the NCAA women’s title in April of this year, Newsweek reports that they were not invited to the White House (link). Six months later, they still haven’t been invited. In light of Trump’s recent racially tinged attacks on famous black athletes, the Gamecocks are now doing everything they can to get the word out about the fact that Trump snubbed them.
It seems fairly clear that Trump’s lack of an invite to the champion Gamecocks has something to do with the racial makeup of the team’s roster, which is largely African-American. It creates the perception that Trump and his White House either couldn’t be bothered to invite a mostly black championship team for a visit, or that the invitation was purposely never sent for fear that the team might embarrass Trump by declining it.
Considering that Donald Trump has since publicly revoked the Golden State Warriors invitation to the White House, the latter scenario is entirely possible. Trump’s White House knew if it didn’t initially invite the NBA championship team and its famous stars, the public would notice. On the other hand, it appears the somewhat lower profile NCAA women’s championship team was purposely never invited to the White House, in the hope that no one would notice.
