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Champion Naomi Osaka, left, with second place, Serena Williams, after the women's US Open final on Saturday in New York. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images)
Michael Cavna
Writer / artist for Comic Riffs, covering visual storytelling, cartoon / illustration art, comedy / satire and animation.
FOR THE The second time in a month, Australian cartoonist Mark Knight of the Melbourne Herald Sun is criticized for the way he has rendered blacks.
Over the weekend, Knight released his reaction to the Saturday final of the American Women's Open.
In the new caricature, which mocks the heated exchanges between Second Vice President Serena Williams and Chair Umpire Carlos Ramos, Knight represents the Grand Slam champion as a young pacifier sucker. The referee told eventual champion Naomi Osaka: "Can you let her win?"
In doing so, Knight draws facial features reflecting Jim Crow's dehumanizing caricatures, so common in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The caricature of Knight evokes a range of caricatures of this type that were marked on memories and popularized on stage and on screen of the time, including the character of the show of minstrel Topsy, born of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Black Sambo.
Such caricatures were parodied in the 60s by the underground underground creator R. Crumb, through his character Angelfood McSpade.
And Spike Lee – who attended a previous open round in the US, praised Williams' greatness as Muhammad Ali's – created a powerful montage of racist pop-racist caricatures in his 2000 film "Bamboozled".
In Saturday's women's final, Ramos accused Williams of committing three violations, including a match violation.
Knight's posting of this match is criticized for the way he caricatured the two finalists. Some people say that his Osaka figure – because of his fair skin, slender body and all-blonde hair – looks like a little white woman.
Author J.K. Rowling wrote on Twitter: "Bravo to reduce one of the biggest sporting racist and sexist tropes and turn a second big sportswoman into a faceless support".
And tweeted British journalist Charles Thomson"In 100 years, this caricature will not be seen differently from Jim Crow's old images or Jack Johnson's newspaper cartoons. Mark Knight just slipped into the history books.
Thomson's lyrics show how Williams' athletic ancestors – such as the great black champions of the early twentieth century like boxers Jack Johnson and Joe Louis – were often portrayed in cartoons of the era via Sambo cartoons.
Knight responded on Twitter to a user who accused him of not treating male players in the same way:
Here's how other critics responded on social media:
At the beginning of August, for a cartoon about station security In the Australian state of Victoria, Knight also faced anger for the way he drew black faceless characters who were fighting in the background. The reaction against this image included the disgust of a politician from Melbourne who wrote: "The racist defamation of the Melburnians of the Herald Sun continues. Totally shameful.
Knight did not respond to the Washington Post's request for comment.
Read more:
Column: At the US Open, the power of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka is eclipsed by the power play of an umpire.
"He changed the course of the match": Novak Djokovic took the side of Serena Williams in the United States.
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