This stuff cannot be made up, folks. And as much as I try to give society the benefit of the doubt sometimes, there are times when people make it impossible. This is one of those times. Now, some may view this as a pretty trivial thing. But in the context of the icon that Serena Williams is, has been and will forever be, I think it is extremely important that we examine this particular situation.
It was announced yesterday that Serena Williams is the 2015 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the year. Apparently, there was another poll, a readers poll, that had voters picking American Pharoah, the racehorse that won the famed and coveted Triple Crown (wining The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes, and The Belmont Stakes horseracing events) to win the award. When it was announced that Serena had won (you know, a person), the internet went batshit crazy. Seriously.
When I first heard the responses to this, I was kind of surprised that people were tripping out over an actual human being winning an award that was for, you know, a person. Then, while I was looking for examples of peoples reactions, I came across these from Twitter...
"I'm so tired of black america…flush Serena down the toilet without a wipe"
and then this one
"HAHAHHA. THEY CHOSE 'SERENA- AKA JACK- WILLIAMS: BECAUSE SHE IS BLACK. ONLY REASON. NONE OTHER. AMERICAN PHAROAH WINNER"
And just like that, the point that I thought I was going to have a hard time making with this blog post was made for me. The only reason this is an issue is not because a fucking horse deserved to win an award that was designated for a person, but because Serena is Black. And that she is a woman.
The funny thing is, I wasn't looking for responses that indicated racial issues with Serena winning the award. I was going to come from the perspective of the other ridiculous responses I saw yesterday, none of which had racial overtones. I was going to make the correlation that these responses more than likely stemmed from people feeling a way that a Black woman (Serena, at that) took home such a prestigious award. I was going to make the arguments that the year she had, even though she didn't win the Grand Slam (winning all four major tennis events in the same year, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) was truly remarkable. Given her continued dominance of her sport at age 34, and the fact that SI decided to chuck the dual awards of Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year and have just one Sportsperson of the Year, Serena was the hands down favorite to win and deserved to win. And it would behoove me to mention that if the award had been given to golfer Jordan Spieth, Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals or MMA phenom Ronda Rousey, I doubt that the backlash would have been as harsh. To have such an uproar over a horse not winning the award, I can't help but feel that it is fueled by the disdain many have had for Serena over the years (the fact that a horse was even considered for the award, to me, seemed like a ridiculous idea anyway). She is anything but your prototypical female athlete in a sport dominated for years by non-Blacks until she came on the scene. At an age where most of her contemporaries would either have retired or have seen their skills diminish, Serena has shown the passion and tenacity that has defined her career and has allowed her to shatter records that some deemed untouchable. Serena has been counted out numerous times, only to return from injury or other hurdles and reestablish her place as the most dominant athlete the sport of tennis has ever seen. Period. So of course, the hate is expected.
But not on this level. Personally, my perspective is this; there are people who feel like a horse is more deserving of an award than this phenomenal Black woman. If American Pharoah's jockey, Victor Espinoza, had been considered for the award and didn't get it, then I could understand those who argued on his behalf. But he wasn't up for consideration. Yet, people are outraged that a horse "was robbed", that a horse was more deserving. I even saw a response that said American Pharoah "united a nation" by winning the Triple Crown. I personally find it disturbing and insulting that people, actual people, would feel that an award that was designated to be won by a person would say that Serena Williams is less deserving of this award than an animal is. It is degrading, and I feel like the sentiments expressed were made to be degrading. These type of comments, as one of the Twitter posts I noted above shows, are not new to Serena Williams. But it is somewhat indicative of what Black individuals, male and female, go through under the modern day spotlight. To add to the madness, there is now this idea of a "Black agenda" that even further degrades the progress and successes of Black entertainers and athletes. The idea that Serena is only gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated because she is Black (by the way, SI has had plenty of Black athletes on its covers, albeit most of those athletes were men) trivializes not only what she has done this calendar year but also what she has done for the sport of tennis as a whole. It trivializes what she has done outside the lines, as a fashion and media icon. It trivializes what Serena Williams has done to empower women and what she means to so many Black kids, girls especially, who come from the same places as she did who look at her and see an example of what they can become. It trivializes the Black struggle, in general. For more evidence on this, check out this link to see what the Los Angeles Times thought was an appropriate way to broach the topic...
further insensitivity
If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know that this topic is one that I cover often. Some people may feel like continuing to attack these issues when they arise is somewhat pointless. Some may feel it is empty rhetoric. But when the accomplishments of another human being are relegated in favor of the triumph of an animal, it shows that no matter what one of us does, no matter how positive or how great a Black persons accomplishments are, it will never be good enough in the eyes of some. Some will go to great lengths to diminish or degrade Black people, celebrity or not and society as a whole will accept it either because it is the norm or because Black triumphs don't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Many people wonder why the #blacklivesmatter movement means so much to us in the Black community. This is an example as to why. Some may wonder why we hold such athletes/ celebrities/ personalities like Serena Williams in such high regard. Part of the reason is because they get such a bad rap for doing human things. Serena throws a racket and she's labeled as classless, even though she can be one of the most classy individuals on any given day. Serena curses out a line judge for several egregious missed calls and she's vilified for it, yet John McEnroe is revered for his antics in some of tennis' most outrageous outbursts. Serena and her sister Venus have endured all sorts of racial issues and flat out disrespect throughout their respective careers, things that no other high profile tennis players, male or female during their era, has had to endure. And yet, they are treated as stains on the sport, freaks of society for no other reason than because they are Black women. Even her provocative yet tasteful cover shoot was criticized, with Sports Illustrated stepping out of the fray by saying the shoot was her idea. No matter how you cut it, Serena can't catch a break when it comes to being her. But when it comes to being Sportsperson of the year, no one is more deserving of the award than she is. And neither is a goddamn horse.
