(ThyBlackMan.com) Ever get the feeling that you are trapped in one of those never ending Greek myths? You know, like the one where the Heracles (better known by the Roman rip-off name,”Hercules”) has to fight Anteas, the giant son of Mother Earth who derived his strength from contact with the earth. Whenever Heracles threw the giant down, he arose with even greater strength. Or the story of Hydra, the nine headed sea serpent who grew two heads every time our hero (Heracles again) smashed one of its heads.
You may be wondering why I’m starting this blog with references to a Greek mythology paradigm. Just as we are trying to celebrate the Confederate flag coming down across the South, the New York Times publishes an article on Serena Williams that is so outrageously, blatantly racist that it would have been more appropriate had it been published by your local KKK, or Willie Lynch, for that matter, than what had at one time been considered America’s preeminent newspaper. Smash one of racism’s gruesome heads and two grow back. As you may know, Serena Williams just won her sixth Wimbledon title and her twenty eighth victory in a Grand Slam match. She is easily the greatest female athlete of her generation, and arguably one of the greatest athletes, male or female of any generation. Just how did the noble New York Times approach Serena’s magnificent accomplishment? Did they analyze the magnitude of her achievement or draw comparisons record to Billy Jean King or Martina Navratilova? No, instead they published a piece entitled “Tennis’s Top Women Balance Body Image With ambition,” an indictment of Williams’ body!
This piece is so incredibly wrong on so many levels; it is difficult to begin to even unravel them. In the first place, just WHO THE HELL does Ben Rothenberg, the author of this drivel, think he is to even talk about Serena’s body like that? In my community, we call that “Talking under her clothes,” an act of complete disrespect. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked to inspect her teeth the next time she takes the court!
The racist author, after describing Williams’ “mold breaking muscular frame,” goes on to report, “Her rivals could try to emulate her physique, but most of them choose not to.” He goes onto quote the coach of one of Serena’s “rivals,” (like I rival Lebron James for best basketball player): “It’s our decision to keep her as the smallest player in the top 10,” said Tomasz Wiktorowski, the coach of Agnieszka Radwanska, who is listed at 5 feet 8 and 123 pounds. “Because, first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be a woman.”
They couldn’t bring Serena down based on her tennis so they attack her womanhood? This piece was born in the nexus of racism and sexual dysfunction that has nurtured all that is evil in race relations in America. The black man was painted either as a sexual brute (note that the deluded killer in the recent Charleston church slaughter claimed “you rape our women” despite the fact that the small crowd was mostly older black women); or as a non-sexual being as evidenced by the prepubescent appellation, “boy”. Similarly, since the American ethos painted women as either whore (Eve) or virgin (as in Mary) and since ever virtuous white women, by definition had to play the “Mary” role, that left black women in the role of Eve. When black women weren’t portrayed as the sluts whose sole purpose in life was to relieve the lecherousness on white men, they too were de-sexed in the role of “mammy.”
Yet I’m afraid the author of this piece has been hoist by his own petard, or to paraphrase the African proverb, his one finger pointing at Serena leaves three fingers pointing back at him. His assessment of Serena’s sexuality says a whole lot more about his, than hers, starting with why in the world would you go there in the first place? Not to mention why you would attack her femininity through the words of a scrawny, little white girl and her coach? The whole point of my blog is that Serena’s body type should be completely off limits. But as a man, please forgive me, I cannot let this go. He thinks she looks masculine? Are you kidding me?? Yes, Serena is buff. But she is what I called, in my days of alliteration, a voluptuous vixen and a paragon of pulchritude. She has grown woman curves. Her curves have curves! Mr. Rothenberg, as well as the editorial staff that gave the go-ahead for this racist nonsense, apparently didn’t notice because they were looking at the size of her arms??!! Really?
Mr. Rothenberg and his editors are cowards, intimidated by the athletic prowess and womanliness of Serena Williams. If they want to know what an ideal feminine physique looks like, they should
survey some heterosexual African American men, like me. Like the sugar-free chewing gum commercial, nine out of ten black men will tell you they love Serena’s physique. And the tenth one? He was accidentally knocked out when the survey was taken.
Staff Writer; William Griggs