ALBANY, N.Y. — It comes with a price, this veneer of toughness and brashness that Angel Reese has fashioned.
She hears the slights and sees the not-remotely-veiled slurs and she squashes them away, hiding the hurt in a little corner of her soul because she recognizes this is bigger than she is. She smiles and pretends she’s above it all because she knows there are little Black girls and young Black women who are watching her and thinking if Angel Reese can be authentic and unapologetic, they can be, too.
But it hurts, and it’s left Reese with scars as real as any she’s ever gotten on the basketball court. The pain from Monday night’s loss to Iowa in the Elite Eight was exacerbated by knowing the vitriol that was sure to follow.
“I don’t really get to stand up for myself,” she said after the game, her voice thick with pain when she was asked her reaction to the unbidden defense of her character by two teammates, Flau’jae Johnson and Hailey Van Lith.
“I don’t really get to speak out on things because I just ignore. I just try to stand strong. I’ve been through so much. I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times — death threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things and I’ve stood strong every single time.”