Why Are American Male Tennis Writers Racist & Sexist Against Serena Williams?
A familiar narrative emerges every year on high profile sports blogs and the usual target is tennis champion Serena Williams. Usually, after the US Open,
the American tennis establishment repeats publishing a series of articles blasting Serena Williams committment to women’s tennis. The theme is the same,
and the result is the same. Serena ignores the racists and misogynists and continues to dominate the game.
The fact remains, Serena Williams is the best female tennis player of her generation.
Serena has thirteen grand slam victories under her belt.
So why is Serena Williams the most disrespected American female tennis champion in American tennis history?
The answer is obvious, Serena Williams is not a white woman. If Serena Williams was a white female tennis champion she would make more money.
According to Forbes Magazine, the white, Russian, blonde, Maria Sharapova raked in $24 million dollars in endorsements last year.
Sharapova is not American, but she’s young, white, pretty, and blonde. Serena has a 6-2 edge against Sharapova in their head to head series.
The tennis public knows Serena Williams is a superior tennis champion but the discourse is race still matters.
Serena Williams has thirteen grand slam titles and Sharapova only has three. Serena is currently number six on the all time grand slam female champions list. Serena popularized tennis across the world due to her talent, determination, and hard work.
Serena violates the American tennis industry’s ideologies about American tennis. Although the USTA claims not be racist, the truth is, the USTA is only
interested in developing new white American tennis champions. African-American youth are discouraged to play tennis.
The American tennis establishment has an insatiable obsession with pretty, young, blonde, white girls. In the 1970s, Tracy Austin and Chris Evert obtained a lot of media attention for wearing short skirts, being blonde, and their tennis talent. Yes, Austin and Evert became tennis champions but their thin, white female bodies also conformed to white American beauty standards.
The formula for American broadcasters and advertisers is female athlete + whiteness + thin+ talent = respectability.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport emerged as tennis champions. The bias, favoritism, the American media have for Davenport and Capriati over Serena Williams is abhorrent. The dilemma for the USA media is, Davenport and Capriati both retired from the WTA Tour.
No new white American girls have emerged so the USA press have to endure watching Serena rack up numerous grand slam titles.
The American tennis establishment doesn’t want black American female tennis champions to dominate tennis.
The dilemma for the American tennis establishment is, Serena just doesn’t have the right look to be the face of American tennis.
The marketing machine of the USTA and the American sports media want to sell sex to white American heterosexual men.
Female athletes can’t be respected unless the male tennis commentator or writer can obtain an erection. If a female athlete is talented and attractive
this is perfect formula for heterosexual male sports fans.
Since many heterosexual are sexist and racist the predilection is for a white, blonde, girl, to sell sex for white American male sports consumers.
A female athlete cannot just be an athlete she has to become a model. Heterosexual American male tennis fans want to masturbate and watch tennis women’s tennis simultaneously. The attitude of American advertisers is, female athletes should be pretty and white or this will not hold the interest of sexist heterosexual men!
Serena is not white, thin, blonde, and because she’s a black woman who is intelligent, hardworking, they feel have a right to demonize her.
Black women encounter multiple oppressions such as racism and sexism in this white supremacist world.
The Mythical Norm, which is the white, heterosexual male believes they are at the apex of society.
Since Serena Williams is a black female tennis champion, the attitude of white American male tennis writers is they are entitled to attack her.
The incredible misogyny and racism that is fired at Serena Williams constantly reiterated on sports websites such as MSNBC.COM, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Tennis, ESPN.COM, Fox Sports, is disturbing and also deleterious. 
Once again, the jackass Peter Bodo at ESPN.com is complaining about Serena Williams and her so-called lack of committment to women’s tennis.
Why doesn’t Bodo and the rest of the racist and sexist American male tennis writers admit the truth?
Tennis fans across the world know male tennis writers hate women and do not respect women’s sports.
The reason the American male tennis writers hate Serena is because she is so talented and she knows it!
Serena only competed in six WTA tour events this year and she won the Australian Open and Wimbledon!
The WTA tour is a joke, the USA press are desperate, they want a young, blonde, white “it” girl to emerge. This is the reason the American media made a big deal about Melanie Oudin reaching the US Open quarterfinals last year.
However, Oudin was unable to handle the media pressure and her ranking has slipped. I believe Oudin is talented, but she needs to improve her serve and fitness. Since Oudin is only a teenager, I feel I will wait a few more years to see if she will emerge and become a champion or end up being a journeywoman.
At this year’s US Open, did anyone notice the American media’s obsession with the Danish player Caroline Wozniacki? The constant commercials, the tennis commentators praising Wozniacki’s game over and over like a broken record was annoying!
Yes, Wozniacki is only twenty years old, she won 10 WTA Tour titles, and reached last year’s US Open final. I agree that Wozniacki is a very talented tennis player.
However, I am not convinced Wozniacki has the game to really dominate women’s tennis. Wozniacki has an inflated WTA ranking because her father pushes her to compete in over 20 WTA events a year. I am just not convinced she is mentally tough enough and her game is effective to dominate women’s tennis. I was stunned when Vera Zvonareva of Russia destroyed Wozniacki 6-4 6-3 in the US Open semifinals. Wozniacki was so nervous and tight she capitulated and made a million errors.
The USA Media do not respect female athletes for a variety of reasons. First, in the USA a female athlete is supposed to conform to Eurocentric standards of beauty to be palatable to white heterosexual men. The discourse is, since Maria Sharapova is white, thin, tall, and blonde she’s supposed to be the face of the WTA tour. The quandary is, Sharapova’s confidence has slipped she’s not winning any big events anymore. Sharapova’s serve now her Achilles heel. The next obvious question is, why are the American media upset at Serena Williams?
The American media hate Serena for a plethora of reasons. The USA press is racist and sexist against black women this is a fact. If you read blogs such as Chris Chase’s pathetic articles at Yahoo Tennis, Peter Bodo’s pieces on ESPN.Com, Matt Cronin’s articles at Fox Sports, the themes are the same.
My opinion is, there is a mixture of envy, anger, misogyny, and racism and this fuels the fire. Richard and Oracene Williams deserve credit for teaching Serena that tennis is not her life. Would the tennis writers prefer Serena end up snorting cocaine like Martina Hingis or attempt suicide like Jennifer Capriati? I personally believe, the resentment the USA press have for Serena is because she is so well-adjusted. Serena can handle the bigots and the misogynists because her parents raised her well.
A lot of the female tennis players live in a plastic bubble, they are surrounded by enablers that tell them tennis must be their life. However, a tennis player can only compete at the highest level until their early to mid 30s. Remember thirty years old is still very young in life terms. Some tennis players have no plan B they don’t know what to do with themselves outside of tennis and that is very sad.
Does anyone honestly think the American tennis establishment would care about Serena Williams if she was ranked 100 or 200 in the world? Of course not!
Serena angers the American tennis media because she gives hardly competes yet destroys the competition! Serena knows she can enter any grand slam besides the French Open and win the event!
The only rivals Serena Williams has at the moment are the Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. However, Henin and Clijsters are also veterans and they are also limiting their tennis schedule. So why are the press fixated on Serena yet don’t admonish Clijsters and Henin?
The answer is obvious, since Henin and Clijsters are white they get a free pass for not supporting the WTA Tour consistently. Meanwhile, the racist and sexist attitude of the American tennis establishment is Serena should be “grateful” to be competing on the WTA Tour. The American press view Serena as an arrogant young black woman because she has high self-esteem and confidence. Serena is simply too mentally strong to allow racist and sexist male tennis writers to stop her from living her life on her own terms. Serena should be commended for living a balanced life not criticized for it.
Ottawa Citizen Article: Did Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Make A Mistake By Letting Michaelle Jean Go?
Egan: Complacency regaining its stranglehold
Kelly Egan
Photograph by: The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Ottawa, officially, may be embarking on an era of sleepy competence.
This should give our arched eyebrows a rest. We never did take to Swaggerville, did we?
On Friday, we’re trading Michaëlle Jean for David Johnson. In a little more than three weeks, we may be replacing Larry O’Brien with Jim Watson.
In other words, we’re achieving the impossible: taking Dullsville and turning it down a notch or two. (Remember, this is a city where too many lawn chairs at Bluesfest can incite a riot.)
To broaden things for a moment, here’s the official portrait of the biggest big-whigs who may soon represent us at all levels: Stephen Harper, Dalton McGuinty, David Johnston, Jim Watson.
Wow. How’s that for sex appeal? Throw in Fred MacMurray and a couple of cardigans you’ve a got a sit-com. Give us a sec to wiggle the rabbit ears. (We are forgetting, of course, about NCC boss Marie Lemay, whose sparkle will be welcomed more than ever.)
Well, perhaps it’s time to compare and contrast, as they say — what we have, what we may be getting.
Larry O’Brien lives in a high-end condo, drives a Mercedes or two — or pretty much anything he wants — and, in his spare time, likes howling around in fast cars on a race track.
Jim Watson has a pedometer — you know, those little gizmos that keep track of how far you walk.
I guess he has a car of some kind and probably doesn’t live in a trailer, but you can already picture his house: modest, well-kept, low maintenance, has a spare room where he stores his abundance of caution, has airbags in his pajamas, etc., because you can’t be too careful.
O’Brien got married while in office.
Watson? No wedding bells that we know of, but life is full of surprises.
O’Brien has a dog named Remi, a cockapoo that has made several public appearances. Cute little guy.
Watson? No pets, apparently, but was once called a “scaredy cat” by Remi’s owner.
Quite aside from transit and Lansdowne and taxes, we already know that, day-to-day, Watson would bring a different tone to city hall. The confrontational style would be gone, as would the hurling of insults.
All well and good. You do wonder, though, whether the citizenry will just go to sleep. No spectacle? No spectators.
Well, enough of this municipal nonsense. What about the new people along Sussex Drive?
You feel slightly sorry for David Johnston, who is following the most atypical governor general the country has ever had.
Jean is young, a Haitian refugee, gorgeous, always beautifully dressed and unafraid to shed tears at the appropriate moment. Style, she proved, actually matters.
Johnston, while hugely accomplished, is none of those things. And if he attempts to eat the heart of a defenceless mammal, he’ll be seen as a copy cat.
People need a Diana. Without Jean, it is to wonder who in the public eye — in this town, anyway — is worth watching?
Johnston, in fact, may return the office of GG, in tone, to what Canadians are more accustomed to, before the last two incumbents.
That is, more patrician, more regal — but Canadian-friendly regal — an office held by someone near the end of their public-service careers. And there isn’t a single thing wrong with that.
We will, no doubt, grow to like him. People at the University of Waterloo are certainly enthusiastic about his abilities and his personal warmth. They love the guy.
Jean, it seems, was not a constitutional expert. She was a journalist. And, let’s face it, journalists who know the constitution inside-out are both rare and strange.
Johnston is a legal scholar. He knows this stuff cold. So, when Harper calls and wants to prorogue Parliament and install his cat as PM, the GG knows right away that violates Section 7, Part 2 of the Long Form Census.
Johnston, too, is probably not a dual citizen of France, like his predecessor was, nor will he have to endure whispers about Quebec separatist sympathies.
Well, we shall see.
Change is brewing, we know. You only hope this wave of competence doesn’t tranquilize the whole joint.
Gayblackcanada 