At this point everyone has seen/heard/read the news about how Naomi Osaka has withdawn from the French Open. Some say she’s being unfair because ‘she knew what she signed up for’; others are wanting to (rightfully) unpack the ways in which we commodify athletes and expect them to always be performing for us: be it with the racquet in hand or post-interviews, while we’re pregnant or ten minutes after the baby is born, when we get a new shoe deal or when the deal goes under/why you declined.
I started the day of the announcement saying I was angry, but given time with friends (yea, even during a Pomegranate) and some time to sip tea and get grounded where I was almost a year ago, I can think on this more clearly.
We need to talk about how Naomi was never going to win with some of y’all, ever. I love Naomi Osaka, but by gods do I hate how we treat her.
he gets to experience the brundt of being Black on the court, being Japanese on the court (full disclosure: I will not be going into that aspect specifically, it isn’t my lane), being a woman, and now add mental health to the pile. I remember seeing the people who were angry at her for not representing US or Haiti specifically because ‘you can tell she’s Black’, while simultaneously being depicted in comics as staunchly not Black if it means the decades long campaign of hating Serena can continue.
She and Serena share a bond that many envy, and after having beat her mentor I can’t imagine how she felt. Exhilarated? Disappointed? Overjoyed? The range of emotions was probably exhaustive. And Serena, as a mentor and THEE queen of tennis, likely could not have been more proud. Media worked expeditiously to strip any and all joy from both of them, to try and pit them against one another. To see that then be followed up with ‘but why won’t she claim her Blackness MORE’ was……a journey. Luckily a journey that was short lived but as a Black woman, I’m not going to forget. It’s still a journey that happened. A journey-being pitted against one another-that many of us are accustomed to, sadly.
I’m not a big tennis fan, but my uncle in North Hollywood is. He LOVES Serena and Venus and tirelessly argues with people about the rampant and loud racism around the sport-so I’ve always been in the loop to some degree. That and-well, I’m Black. I’ve sat plenty on the internet and watched the quiet circles of hate that swirl around her, that have tried to use her as a bludgeon against Serena (because of course they would). Watched as Asian communities grew angry at her and scolded or mocked her for being proudly Black. As men fetishized her (adblocker wall), then lambasted her for not behaving the way they think she should, and finding any excuse they could to remind her of her ‘place’.
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