Serena Williams, arguably the best tennis player of all time, has regained her number one ranking from the German tennis player Angelique Kerber. Such a feat was accomplished after Serena successfully defeated her sister Venus Williams in two straight sets. This is Serena's seventh Australian Open win and with it comes a record 23rd Grand Slam singles title. The match was no easy feat as Venus, the oldest Australian Open finalist in the Open era, gave it her all. The match was filled with numerous unforced errors on Serena's part and at one point, she even broke her racket in frustration. But the sweat, tears, and hours of hard work paid off not only for Serena, but for Venus as well. The sisters accomplished their goal of having the name "Williams" on the champion trophy.
While Serena's amazing professional career should be at the forefront of her celebrity status, it is not. Recently, S. Williams got engaged to reddit-founder Alexis Ohanian, her boyfriend of 15 months at the time of the proposal. Their engagement made headlines the moment it was announced, and the Australian Open has brought their relationship under even more scrutiny. Many have voiced their opinions on social media. Most have been congratulatory, but others have been rather cynical with opposition stemming from the fact that Ohanian has a considerably lower net worth than S. Williams, and yes, that he is white.
The fact that most individuals who have an issue with Ohanian's race identify as Black men, adds credence to the notion that there are indeed double standards when it comes to interracial dating in the Black community. Some of these men have been quick to call S. Williams too masculine-looking or unattractive. Such criticism obviously stems from them feeling emasculated because a woman is such a dominant force in a sport and is highly revered by both men and women. But these same men are quick to call S. Williams a traitor to her people because of her engagement to someone who is not Black.
Black women have been dealing with this issue for years. Some black men condemn Black women for dating outside their race, yet they deem it perfectly okay for them to date non-Black women. They demand "loyalty" from Black women when they themselves are not even looking in the direction of Black women. I pose a theory that such a phenomenon can be deduced to a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too scenario. These black men seek the coveted prize of the non-Black woman, but want the security of Black woman's loyalty to fall back on in case said relationship fails. Us Black women are objectified to play the role of a safety net.
I for one am tired of being a second, third, or fourth choice. It pains me when some Black men degrade Black women with stereotypical and rather racist sentiment. I have seen Black men on social media liken S. Williams to a gorilla. I have seen Black boys who I know outright refuse to initiate any sort of a relationship with a girl because she was too dark, too loud, too ghetto, or too Black. I fear that they forget that they would not be alive if it were not for a Black woman - and that even their daughters will be Black as well.
Internalized racism is real. All of these Black men and women who put each other down are reflections of society's successful attempt to make us seem like "other." They are reflections of society's success in reducing us to mere stereotype and implementing seeds of casual racism into all of us. The reaction to S. Williams, instead of solely focusing on her tremendous career and seemingly happy relationship with Ohanian, has made this issue even more evident.
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