The Whitewashing Of Naomi Osaka

[blackascoal]

The U.S. Open tennis champion’s biracial identity is inconvenient in a racist narrative that turns Serena Williams into a stereotype.



They don’t know what to do with Naomi Osaka.

In a cartoon he drew for Australia’s Herald Sun on Sept. 10, illustrator Mark Knight depicts Serena Williams during the finals match at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. It’s a classic racist caricature: Williams appears as a hulk-like figure with unkempt hair and large lips reminiscent of the minstrel or the mammy.

Behind Williams is her competitor, Naomi Osaka. Her appearance has been distilled down to its lowest-common-denominator characteristics: light skin, slim frame, blonde hair. She might as well be Maria Sharapova.

Caricatures, by their nature, are meant to distort and exaggerate. But they’re also meant to be symbolic, representative; short-hand for a concept or idea.

Here, the narrative is clear: Williams has been cast as the big, ugly, angry black woman. Osaka, by contrast, has been cast as the innocent white girl, even though she’s not even white.

Knight’s cartoon is what happens when we flatten whole human beings into types, when the story and its narratives become far more important than the nuance. In the process, racist and sexist assumptions are perpetuated and we strip people of their right to be weak and strong, of the totality of their humanity.

Here is the bottom line: On Saturday, two talented tennis players ― one black, one Japanese and black ― played a deeply emotional game, and those emotions came brimming to the surface for a whole host of reasons.

But it wasn’t a matter of villain and victim, good and bad, black and white. Williams is an icon, a legend. And she’s a fallible and whole human being. Just as Osaka is more than just Japanese, more than tearful and endearingly apologetic. She’s a fierce competitor with a distinct personal history, not a symbol of acceptable blackness to weaponize against Williams.

Indeed, she is many things, but what perhaps matters most is who she sees herself as, especially on the court:

“I’m just a tennis player playing another tennis player,” Osaka explained after she accepted her trophy.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0cf7b004209b5

[evince]

unfucking believable


are they insane to allow that into print?

yes

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Look at this cartoon where Serena's opponent is drawn as a blonde white woman:



Ridiculous.

[BRUTALITOPS]

i agree the cartoon seemed kinda racist looking

but on the otherhand, anyway you slice it, serena williams is ugly as fuck

#sorrynotsorry

[ThatOwlWoman]

It's interesting that this incident had nothing to do with race, but the threads dedicated to it here were certainly swarmed by our JPP racist KKKers eagerly bashing the crap out of Ms. Williams -- volsrock, TDAK, Toxic, CFM, etc.

[evince]

how in the hell do you see her as Ugly?

[BRUTALITOPS]

It's interesting that this incident had nothing to do with race, but the threads dedicated to it here were certainly swarmed by our JPP racist KKKers eagerly bashing the crap out of Ms. Williams -- volsrock, TDAK, Toxic, CFM, etc.

many liberals were absolutely insisting it had a lot to do with race and that serena was a black woman and black women like totes should be allowed to smash their rackets and berate a ump for the whole match

[BRUTALITOPS]

how in the hell do you see her as Ugly?

she's ugly as shit. I am a guy, you are a girl. you are not qualified to comment on these matters unless you are a lesbo

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Oh damn you're talking about the same shit

Yeah I was like WTF when I saw that comic. Osaka grew up and lives in America, although she was born in Japan and has Japanese citizenship (I'm sure Japan was ecstatic to have someone of her skill level eligible to compete for them anyway). Were it not known that she's Japanese, any naive onlooker would probably paint her as African-American. But she becomes a blonde white woman the minute she is paired against Serena Williams, because blacks are at the bottom of the pecking order and Asians are a little closer to white on the pecking order.

[Phantasmal]

Look at this cartoon where Serena's opponent is drawn as a blonde white woman:



Ridiculous.

That is awful. It demeans both women. Disgusting

[blackascoal]

It's interesting that this incident had nothing to do with race, but the threads dedicated to it here were certainly swarmed by our JPP racist KKKers eagerly bashing the crap out of Ms. Williams -- volsrock, TDAK, Toxic, CFM, etc.

... by all the ignorant cretins that we don't give a fuck about. :0)

The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.

Ignore the vermin.

[evince]

how in the hell do you see her as Ugly?

[evince]

she is fricking beautiful dude

and she would never do your pasty ass

[cancel2 2022]

The U.S. Open tennis champion’s biracial identity is inconvenient in a racist narrative that turns Serena Williams into a stereotype.



They don’t know what to do with Naomi Osaka.

In a cartoon he drew for Australia’s Herald Sun on Sept. 10, illustrator Mark Knight depicts Serena Williams during the finals match at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. It’s a classic racist caricature: Williams appears as a hulk-like figure with unkempt hair and large lips reminiscent of the minstrel or the mammy.

Behind Williams is her competitor, Naomi Osaka. Her appearance has been distilled down to its lowest-common-denominator characteristics: light skin, slim frame, blonde hair. She might as well be Maria Sharapova.

Caricatures, by their nature, are meant to distort and exaggerate. But they’re also meant to be symbolic, representative; short-hand for a concept or idea.

Here, the narrative is clear: Williams has been cast as the big, ugly, angry black woman. Osaka, by contrast, has been cast as the innocent white girl, even though she’s not even white.

Knight’s cartoon is what happens when we flatten whole human beings into types, when the story and its narratives become far more important than the nuance. In the process, racist and sexist assumptions are perpetuated and we strip people of their right to be weak and strong, of the totality of their humanity.

Here is the bottom line: On Saturday, two talented tennis players ― one black, one Japanese and black ― played a deeply emotional game, and those emotions came brimming to the surface for a whole host of reasons.

But it wasn’t a matter of villain and victim, good and bad, black and white. Williams is an icon, a legend. And she’s a fallible and whole human being. Just as Osaka is more than just Japanese, more than tearful and endearingly apologetic. She’s a fierce competitor with a distinct personal history, not a symbol of acceptable blackness to weaponize against Williams.

Indeed, she is many things, but what perhaps matters most is who she sees herself as, especially on the court:

“I’m just a tennis player playing another tennis player,” Osaka explained after she accepted her trophy.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0cf7b004209b5

What a load of crap, Serena Williams acted like a spoiled diva ffs.

[blackascoal]

she's ugly as shit. I am a guy, you are a girl. you are not qualified to comment on these matters unless you are a lesbo

Post a picture of your wife for contrast.