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Serena Williams is the best player in women's tennis, without question. Over the decades, we have witnessed his dominance and balance, and Saturday's US Open final was no different. I walked and screamed at my screen, anxiously wishing to get out of it. But longtime tennis referee, Carlos Ramos, hit her with a violation that Serena felt defied her integrity, and I was stopped. It was like a personal attack.
Serena's anger in response to the call never broke through with something violent or unexpected, given the history of abrasive remarks made by men before her. And yet, Serena's reaction expressing her indignation has clearly shown that the world of tennis – including Williams fans – is still struggling to understand who Serena is a woman, an athlete and a champion.
The injustices that Serena regularly faces are closely related to her simultaneous existence as a black woman and woman. Any attempt to untangle the two – to privilege one factor of his identity over another in order to make his experiences universal – ends up communicating the same message that professional tennis has sent him for years:.
The confrontation with Ramos, as usual, provoked the contempt of tennis purists, who still can not bear to see the match dominated by a black woman from Compton. But he also resurrected the separate camps and ideologies of Serena's devoted defenders; the first composed of those who chose to interpret his confrontation with Ramos as an "emotional" or "passionate" moment, while the second re-imagines the conflict as simply the consequence of a woman defending herself in the world men.
The first seeks to defend Serena against the damaging trope of the "black woman in anger". Although this is a noble goal, the argument ends up controlling it even more. Black women are allowed to be angry. The double-edged sword of racialized sexism or "misogyny" is deeply rooted. And when an athlete devotes himself entirely to his job to be diminished because of prejudice, the most human thing possible is to get angry. To deny this anger "so that racists do not win" is also to deprive it of its full humanity.
But whitening Serena's anger like a #YesAllWomen moment is just as unfair. Carlos Ramos did not object to what it is called a thief (a rather mundane remark about what male athletes have shouted at him over the years) simply because of the fact. he came from a woman in a skirt. To imagine it as something simple, is to erase a whole history of racialized notions of femininity. Ramos may have forgiven "a skirt," but the black body in the skirt kicked him a blow that his ego simply could not stand.
In the story of Saturday's meeting when Serena was simply misunderstood against Serena, she was well-meaning. But no story is totally honest.
Because at that time, the hard truth is that Serena Williams was angry like hell. And not any type of anger, but anger that is and continues to bear the burden of being black and a woman in this country.
Whatever the social position of black women in America, whatever the weight of racism and sexism that we are forced to bear, our anger remains a threat to society and grounds for dehumanization. The trope of the "black woman in anger" is just one of the many tools used to shame black women in suffering in silence rather than put an end to suffering. Just consider the repulsive caricature of Australia Herald Sun in which Serena is portrayed as a grotesque and overweight baby to see how much our just anger remains powerful and how long a racist and patriarchal society is willing to do to avoid dealing with the real injustices and mistreatment that ensues.
The moments of respite we are looking for in an athlete as powerful and talented as Serena can only be manifested if we allow her to get carried away with her. All that exists in it that produces a moment of comforting and passionate victory and pride also has the ability to produce exasperation and fury during moments of loss and adverse calls.
But we know it.
After all, men's hockey feeds on the ice on the ice between players. Baseball would lose its advantage if a player did not face a referee. The NBA would not be the same without Doc Rivers trying to shoot down a referee with his bare hands.
Whenever we excuse or justify the indignation of male athletes while criticizing Serena Williams' just anger, a message is sent to black women. Despite their dominance despite wage inequality, verbal harassment and sexism and racism, there is no country in sport, and their tolerance as athletes will only be possible if they are limited to to express their humanity.
"You owe me an apology," Serena told Ramos on Saturday after her second match penalty. But the reality is that it will take more than an excuse to correct things.
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