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Newsstand features Herald Sun newspaper, featuring a controversial caricature of Serena Williams, Melbourne, September 12, 2018. (Reuters / Melanie Burton) (MELANIE BURTON / Reuters)
Adam Taylor
Foreign journalist who writes on a variety of topics
When the Australian newspaper Herald Sun published a caricature this week about Saturday's controversial final against American women, it sparked almost immediate controversy. Critics around the world have suggested that the caricature, drawn by Mark Knight, draws on racist tropes in his portrayal of African-American athlete Serena Williams.
On Wednesday, the Melbourne-based newspaper responded to its criticism – republishing the offensive part of the drawing on its front page under the title "WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PC".
"If Mark Knight's self-proclaimed censors end up in Serena Williams's design, our new, politically correct life will be really boring," the front page said. and North Korea Kim Jong Un.
The newspaper, which is run by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia, originally published Williams' caricature on Monday in response to a controversial women's final at the US Open Saturday in New York. The 23rd Grand Slam champion lost her match against Japanese rival Naomi Osaka after a heated dispute with referee Carlos Ramos.
Carlos had warned Williams to have broken a rule regarding the receipt of a coaching on the sidelines. Williams responded angrily and said that she was not cheating. She later broke her racket and was tied to a point. After a series of verbal clashes with the referee, Carlos inflicted a penalty.
The dispute between Williams and Ramos made headlines in the world press, many arguing that the referee had been unfair in giving the American his first warning for violating a rule rarely applied and that the punishment was too severe. Many critics have argued that other players – especially white and male players – were not judged as severely as Williams.
The caricature of the Herald Sun had portrayed Williams breaking his racket, while in the background the referee said to Osaka: "Can you let her win?" However, the Williams portrait of Knight reminds many old African Americans as racist.
As The Post's Michael Cavna said, "Knight draws facial features reflecting Jim Crow's dehumanizing caricatures, so common in the 19th and 20th centuries. The caricature of Knight evokes a series of caricatures of this type that have been marked on souvenirs and popularized on stage and on screen, including the character of the Topsy minstrel show, born from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" , as well as Black Sambo. & # 39;
Knight faced a wave of criticism on social media, with major figures like J.K. Rowling weighing the bar. "Congratulations on reducing one of the biggest sportsmen to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second big sportswoman into a faceless stand," said Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter. wrote to Knight (The designer has since deleted his Twitter account).
In an interview with ABC News in Australia, Knight defended the cartoon. "I saw the world's number one tennis player have a huge rustle and spit out the dummy," Knight said Tuesday, using an Australian expression for a childishness crisis. "I drew her as an African-American woman. She is powerfully built. She wears these outrageous costumes when she plays tennis. She is interesting to draw. I drew her as she is, as an African-American woman.
The Sun Herald said he was alongside Knight on Tuesday, calling him "Australia's Best Cartoonist" and saying positive comments outweighed the negative comments. Knight has been working for the newspaper for several decades and has won awards for his drawings.
However, Knight has faced criticism of his handling of race and gender in the past. As Cavna noted earlier this week, an August cartoon about station security was also labeled racist for portraying faceless black characters fighting in the background. Knight also faced criticism in the 1990s for a caricature of a female politician in bed with a male counterpart.
Rohan Connolly, a popular Australian sports journalist, Tuesday presented his views on the controversial caricature, arguing that even though he did not think Knight was racist, he understood that some of the cartoon's earlier work was.
Connolly said that he had himself been accused of racism in the past and that he had apologized once the subject had been explained to him. "So I think it's quite possible to be racially insulting through naivety," he wrote in a post on Twitter. "The fact is, once you see the other point of view, of those who have been subjected to this kind of crime or oppression, it should be enough to stop it."
Read more:
The racist cartoon of Australian artist Serena Williams receives a quick and international return
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