Beyond Indian Wells: Serena Williams has been consistently disrespected for her entire career


Olde Hornet

Well-Known Member
Interesting article. Like I said before I would have never gone back.

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8189679/serena-williams-indian-wells-racism

But the attacks Williams has experienced as the result of her status as a rare black tennis player in a white-dominated field didn't begin or end with Indian Wells.

The racialized, sexualized, dehumanizing comments about her — which are nearly impossible to imagine being made about any of her peers — are a genre unto themselves, offering a case study on how biases make their way into media coverage. As James McKay and Helen Johnson write in a 2008 article published in Social Identities, about what they called the "pornographic eroticism and sexual grotesquerie in representations of African American sportswomen," even so-called complimentary commentary about Williams' athleticism is often grounded in stereotypes about black people (animalistic and aggressive) and black women specifically (masculine, unattractive, and overly sexual at once).
 
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