SERENA WILLIAMS’ U.S. OPEN “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” CARTOON IS RACISM AT IT’S FINEST

SERENA WILLIAMS’ U.S. OPEN “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” CARTOON IS RACISM AT IT’S FINEST:

UNFORTUNATELY 20th CENTURY RACISM IS STILL ALIVE EVEN FOR SUPER ATHLETES.


Post Sources: ESPN, Herald Sun, Washington Post, Yahoo Sports, Youtube


**** Australian newspaper prints racist cartoon about Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka


Serena Williams made headlines (and was fined $17,000) for her outburst over the officiating nightmare at the U.S. Open women’s final on Saturday. It was a polarizing moment, with Williams calling out the double standard for the conduct women’s tennis players and the inconsistent application of the rules. Now, days after the incident, a newspaper cartoonist from Australia has put his spin on it. And his spin is really, really racist.

Editorial cartoonist Mark Knight of the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun was so proud of his Serena Williams-U.S. Open cartoon, which was published in the newspaper, that he posted it on his Twitter account early Monday morning.

If you’re wondering why he was proud, you’re not alone. He depicts Serena Williams, one of the greatest athletes of all time, as a racist stereotype, with a huge nose and big lips. She’s drawn like a Hulk baby, her strength and power twisted into infantile ugliness as she stomps on her racquet with a pacifier on the ground.

As if the racist depiction of Williams wasn’t enough, there’s more. Naomi Osaka, who beat Williams on Saturday, is Japanese-Haitian. But in the cartoon, she’s drawn as a busty, blonde white woman. And the only words in the cartoon are uttered by the umpire, who says “Can’t you just let her win?” That makes it seem like he played zero part in Saturday’s controversy, but it also implies that Williams needs to be “allowed” to win because she’s not talented enough or because she’s too “angry.”

Twitter’s response was swift and angry

Considering that the racism in Knight’s cartoon was so immense that it could have been spotted from space, Twitter jumped on it immediately and called it out for what it was: racist, hurtful, and 100% unnecessary.

In this one, Williams is drawn like a racist stereotype again, with the big lips and nose, and very defined cheeks. Additionally, she barely looks like a woman, which is obviously intentional. She’s holding up a sign and being approached by a Nike executive, in an effort to tie in the brand’s recent Colin Kaepernick commercial and make it look like Williams fighting for herself on the court was just a PR move.

Williams’ race isn’t brought up in the text of the cartoon itself, but she’s still drawn like a racist stereotype. Zanetti made the choice to draw her that way, when drawing Williams like a person wouldn’t have changed the overall meaning of the cartoon at all. But he did draw her that way, because the point of the cartoon is to make Williams look bad, not just for challenging the double standard of women’s conduct in tennis and being emotional on the court, but apparently just for being African-American.

Tiger Woods To Skip The Masters? Let's Hope Not

Masters Return For Tiger Looking Less Likely


Insiders say Tiger Woods doesn’t know when he will return to competition. But the more PGA Tour people whom I talk with, the more I sense Woods might not return by the Masters.

I’m surprised I just typed that last sentence. Until this week, I had subscribed to the notion he would return in March and play a Florida tuneup or two before heading to Augusta, Ga.

Following a sex scandal that turned him into a punch line and punching bag, Woods announced in early December that he’d be taking an indefinite leave. A month later, everyone’s still guessing about the timetable because he’s not talking and his camp is in more tight-lipped lockdown than usual.

There are two primary schools of thought: One, he’ll return in March and get ready for the Masters and continue his chase toward Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships. Two, he won’t play at all in 2010.

“If he and (wife) Elin decide to work it out, it could take a long time,” said Champions Tour player John Cook, a longtime Woods friend and one of two touring professionals who attended the Woodses’ wedding in 2004. “If they decide not to stay together, I think he goes out pretty quick. . . . If he works on the emotional things he needs to heal, I could see 2011 (as a return date). It wouldn’t surprise me at all.”

Multiple professional golfers have told me they don’t think he’ll play this year. One emphatically said he sees no way Woods will play the Masters. Another said the news media wrongly portrays that Nicklaus’ record is the most important thing to Woods.

At first, I dismissed such thought. My reasoning was, I couldn’t imagine Woods doing anything the second week of April other than playing golf in Bobby Jones’ invitational.

What, he’ll skip the Masters and hang out on his boat and try to hook fish instead of a fifth green jacket?

And he’ll miss the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and the British Open at St. Andrews, other sites where he has dominated? Doesn’t sound like something this ultra-competitive golf assassin would prefer. How much scuba diving can one man do?

“I don’t think he’ll play until his marital situation is settled,” one veteran touring pro said.

Or at least cleared up one way or the other. The technical term, I believe, is “when the dust settles.” That makes sense. The quicker a decision is made on divorce or reconciliation, the faster the process goes and the sooner we’ll see him play golf again.

A decent guess is we’ll see him when his world and hers are more comfortable again. It will be easier for him to re-enter public life once everyone knows his wife is taken care of, that he did right by his family in the messy aftermath, that he got help, that he learned something and changed.

The easy default is March. That’s the sports side. The sports timetable is easily measured. But the human side isn’t. The human side knows no timetable. Things like divorce and emotional healing move at their own speed.

One thing about Woods is certain: He tends not to play until he’s ready. It follows that his personal situation will have to play out before anyone knows how long it will take him to prepare physically and mentally. Considering that, his participation in the Masters would seem doubtful.

If he returns in March, his “indefinite” leave would mean missing 2-3 tournaments. Some think that doesn’t sound like an “indefinite” leave.

The longer Woods sits out, the more he heals and the more the frenzy dies down.

The longer he sits out, the more golf will want him back, the more sports will miss him.

Time is his ally.

Woods is an athlete who messed up big-time. His actions have cost him a high level of embarrassment. They have cost him multi-millions. They might have cost him his family.

In time, more people than ever will watch him play golf because more people know about him now. In time, the world will understand he paid his price. Given that our society seems to like champions, for better or for worse, winning more majors will only aid his cause.



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Sources: MSNBC, Fox Sports, ESPN, NY Daily News, Google Maps