USA Today Just Compared Caitlin Clark to a White Woman Who Got a Black Child Lynched

July 26, 2026 Cat2, The Media
Michaela Jilkova via shutterstock

USA Today just compared Caitlin Clark to a white woman who got a black child lynched.

And the columnist who wrote it locked her account the moment America pushed back.

They claim Clark's complaints about WNBA referees are putting black and queer players "in danger" – and the proof runs straight through Emmett Till.

What Nancy Armour Actually Wrote

USA Today columnist Nancy Armour published a piece Wednesday calling Clark and her "enablers" idiots – and it gets worse from there.

Armour cites two recent plays – one involving Chelsea Gray, another involving Kiah Stokes – as supposed proof that Clark fabricates injuries to make black opponents look like aggressors.

There's just one problem.

Video of the Stokes incident shows Stokes' knee making contact with Clark's quad in exactly the area Clark identified.

Armour watched the same replay and declared Clark's contusion fake.

No medical training. No examination.

Just a columnist overruling a professional athlete's own account of her own body.

Then comes the Emmett Till paragraph.

"The WNBA's All-Star Game this weekend is in Chicago, Emmett Till's hometown," Armour wrote, connecting Clark's referee complaints to the history of white women making false accusations that led to violence against black Americans.

Clark never accused Gray or Stokes of a crime.

Clark never asked anyone to harm them.

Clark complained about missed foul calls – the same thing every point guard in the history of basketball has done.

What Armour Chose Not to Write About

Here is what Nancy Armour did not write a single column about.

Last month, Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas drove her fist directly into Clark's throat during a game in Indianapolis.

Officials missed the call.

The WNBA reviewed the play afterward, assessed Thomas a Flagrant 2, and suspended her one game for "recklessly making contact" with Clark's throat area.

Armour was silent.

No column about the wider consequences of Thomas's behavior.

No lecture about how attacking the league's most visible player might inflame tensions.

No concern about the message it sends when a fist to the throat gets one suspended game.

But a stranger sent Chelsea Gray an ugly message after a different game, and suddenly Armour had 800 words of righteous fury – all directed at Caitlin Clark.

This is the pattern.

Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark when her back was turned – Armour blamed Clark's fan base.

DiJonai Carrington poked Clark in the eye during the 2024 playoffs – Armour told Clark she needed to "call out the toxic segment of her fan base."

Both Clark and Carrington said the eye contact was accidental.

Clark left that game with a black eye.

Armour decided Carrington was the victim.

The Danger Is Real – Just Not Where Armour Claims

Clark has publicly condemned fan harassment three times in fourteen months.

In June 2024, she called racist and misogynistic behavior from her fans "disappointing" and "not acceptable."

She then acknowledged her White privilege in a Time magazine profile.

Earlier this month, she opened a media availability with a five-minute statement condemning harassment toward opponents, teammates, and coaches.

"The harassment, the hate, none of that is okay," Clark said directly.

None of it matters to Nancy Armour.

Meanwhile, here is where the documented danger actually lives.

A 55-year-old Texas man traveled from Denton to Indianapolis, sent Clark numerous threatening and sexually explicit messages, and was arrested at a downtown hotel.

He pleaded guilty to stalking and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Paige Bueckers' stalker bought an engagement ring and flew across the country because he was convinced she was going to marry him.

Sophie Cunningham's stalker was charged after allegedly sending threatening messages and delivering a package to Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

All three players are white.

Her alleged danger is hypothetical.

The actual arrests are not.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said it was "incredibly unfair" that Clark had become a political football when she simply wanted to play basketball.

Nancy Armour's column proves his point in real time.

A conversation about flopping and referee complaints turned into a column invoking white nationalism, American racial violence, queer identity, and a 14-year-old boy murdered in 1955.

Clark earned her place in this league.

She leads the WNBA in assists.

She filled arenas that were half-empty before she arrived.

She has condemned fan harassment more explicitly and more repeatedly than any player in the history of the sport.

And Nancy Armour responded by comparing her to the woman whose accusations got Emmett Till killed.

Then she locked her account.

Sources:

  • Dan Zaksheske, "USA Today writer says Caitlin Clark puts Black and queer WNBA players 'in danger' by flopping," OutKick, July 23, 2026.
  • Peter Bukowski, "USA Today invokes Emmett Till in column about Caitlin Clark flopping," Awful Announcing, July 23, 2026.
  • "Man pleads guilty to stalking and harassing WNBA star Caitlin Clark," NBC News, August 2025.
  • "Alleged Clark stalker arrested," ESPN, January 2025.