Reply #10: Consider this perspective . . . [View All]

[Empowerer]

Refereeing Serena: Racism, Anger, and U.S. (Women’s) Tennis
http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/refereeing-serena-racism-anger-and-u-s-womens-tennis/

All honest tennis players and stans will admit that the Williams Sisters have transformed the game of women’s tennis. They have brought power and speed to bear in ways that used to be relegated to the men’s game. With their power serves, speed, and willingness to chase down and make impossible shots, the Sisters also upped the physical fitness requirements for champions. When asked about 3 years ago how the Williams Sisters had transformed the game, Darren Cahill offered rather hesitantly, “they have opened the doors to people from all walks of life.” Really? That’s it? Tennis is more colorful now that the Williams Sisters have been a part of it? Thanks for the magnanimity, Darren.

But it is the female commentators who make me want to spit nails. Mary Carillo and occasional commentator and tennis legend Chris Evert are the worst of them all. Mary Carillo vacillates between loving Serena—now, anyway—and criticizing her. In the early part of their careers, the sisters winning game was attributed to their powerful bodies. But they were frequently accused of “lacking strategy,” “not thinking about their shots,” and “relying on their ‘natural athleticism.” Whey they started coming to the net and winning, their success was attributed yet again to their “natural athletic ability.” The Williams Sisters were represented as hypermasculine, unattractive women overpowering dainty white female tennis players (although Jennifer Capriati, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin are anything but dainty.) These narratives about Black bodies as “naturally athletic,” “more powerful,” “more wild,” “less thoughtful,” and “less strategic” and black female bodies as “(un)naturally strong, invulnerable, and unattractive”– are central to Western narratives of white racial superiority.

I knew the hateration would be back in full force this year, when I tuned in to watch Donald Young, a wild card player in an early round match. As Young played, ... Patrick McEnroe went on a diatribe about how “undisciplined” Young is and how the USTA (US Tennis Assoc) has had “problems” with him. Young stopped training at the the USTA’s tennis academies, and has instead chosen to let his parents train him at the facility they opened in ATL. But if Black players continue to defect from the formal ranks of the USTA, to train by themselves, perhaps the issue is not with the players or “their lack of discipline,” but rather with the USTA itself? Perhaps the problem is with a tennis system that largely sees Black players as a “problem.”
. . .

{F}rankly, I see Serena’s outburst as understandable and amusing. Call me a Williams stan if you want to. It’s true. But this is not about simple loyalty.

Yes, I’m aware of all the ways in which her acts in this moment reinforce stereotypes of the Angry Black Woman. However, we cannot use our investment in a respectability politic which demands that Black women never show anger or emotion in the face of injustice to demand Serena’s silence. Resistance is often impolite, and frequently it demands that we skirt the rules ...

Moreover, the USTA loves angry heckling players—as long as they are white men. Early in the tournament, there was a video and interview tribute to Jimmy Connors, a player legendary for his angry outbursts on the court. In the tribute they devoted extended time to showing one of the more famous of these outbursts, in a celebratory manner. White anger is entertaining; Black anger must be contained.