Sportsmanship is Racist and Sexist

By Serena Williams

 

Thanks a lot Martina Navratilova, for shaming me and marginalizing me even more than I was already marginalized.  Guess what, you can’t hurt me.  What marginalizes me only makes me stronger.

For those that don’t know, the ugly old tennis player from Czechoslovakia (A country that doesn’t even exist by the way!  Ha!) wrote an op-ed in the NY Times claiming that I should have behaved better, because of the children.

 

The children, Martina?

 

What about Muhammad Ali?  Did he have to behave better for the children?  Did the children stop him from all his trash talking and floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee?   What about Jackie Robinson?  Should he have stayed in the Negro leagues because of the children?

 

Do you know what you really mean when you say Sportsmanship?  You really mean Sports-WhiteMan-Ship.

 

And don’t even talk to a black person about ships and white men.  It’s not a happy story.

 

Oh, what about Colin Kaepernick?  Should he be a “better sport” and get up off his knee during the anthem?

 

Tell that to Nike, Martina.   Has Nike given you a million bucks lately, has it?  Didn’t think so.

 

What about your people, Navratilova?  Should they have been “better sports” and let Stalin beat the shit out of them?  Oh wait, they did let Stalin beat the shit out of them.   

Can’t you white people see what “sportsmanship” is?  It’s a way of keeping other races down and maintaining their white privilege, their hegemony, and their sexism. 

 

A woman of color should not be criticized for bad sportsmanship.  I’m inventing a new concept.  Sports-woman-ship.  And that concept means we are right and all the rest of you are wrong, OK?  You owe me an apology if you can’t see that I’m right.   

 

Can’t you see that I’m right?  I’m right?

 

I’m right!

 

And the umpire was wrong!  I was not being coached!

 

(Even though I was.)

 

Still.

 

It’s a double standard.

 

I’m marginalized.  And I’m right.  There.  I’m going to feed my baby now.  Thank you.

 

(I’m doing this for my daughter, by the way.  Not because I’m an immature cry-bully).