US tennis star feels some people don’t want Black players to succeed after she says they haven’t yet “accomplished” the things she has.
Former world No.1 Serena Williams on Tuesday said some people aren’t ready to accept black athletes who are also good at tennis.
Williams was asked during a press conference on Tuesday if she thinks there is racism in sport.
“I think there is in tennis, but also in life. There’s a lot of racism, and I think that’s what’s so hard for me to understand sometimes,” she said. “I know it exists all over the world, but I think it’s very much embedded in American sports.”
Williams said she’s been inspired by the accomplishments over the years of black tennis players like Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams. She said they are a great inspiration to her.
“I’ve just told everybody that all the athletes that have come before that, they have not accomplished everything that I have accomplished,” she said. “So, I think to say that somebody hasn’t done what you’ve done is crazy, because you’ve been working so hard at getting better and you’ve accomplished so much. So I think that when we judge somebody, it’s like ‘How did they get here?’”
Williams also touched on her recent remarks that black athletes are not living up to their potential because they are not playing to their full potential. She also said that she is not in touch with the athletes she is coaching because she feels like they also have great potential.
In other parts of her response, Williams said that she has two children and works “hard every single day to be prepared to stay as successful and happy as I can.”
“As an African-American woman, I know that there are people that haven’t come across my path yet that are getting to the point where they’re playing to their full potential, and hopefully they’ll keep getting better so that they can play with more confidence and win more tournaments,” she said.
After her remarks about the lack of black tennis players who have reached world No. 1, Williams responded to a question about people who think that she isn’t Black enough. She said, “I don’t feel like I’m in touch with Black people … I have a very, very diverse family. My father is from Jamaica, my mother is from
