Black faces and black places

I know nothing about sport and definitely nothing about tennis. I knew nothing about Serena Williams until the other day when there was a bit of a stramash on a tennis court.

I'll admit - in my ignorance - I thought the top tennis people were white, wore white outfits and lived a fairly secluded life among other white folks in a sport that is pretty well the preserve of white folk.

It turns out tennis has been the domain for some time of people like Serena Williams. Many nationalities, many colours, many genders. 

White folk Serena ain't. She certainly doesn't look like the wimpy, white, English lassies in short white skirts that played at Wimbledon back in the 60s. 

Serena is black. She's an athlete. That means she is well-built and pretty fit. I gather she's been very successful in tennis and, with that, come certain issues: I can't imagine Serena (or Andy Murray or Roger Federer, for that matter) strolling through life unrecognised. That's only fair. But recognition is a two-edged sword: you get known, so people are nice to you. But you also become a target. And that's what I think happened to Serena this week. 

After her stramash with the umpire at the US Open, this cartoon appeared:

I'm assured - by a lot of men online (no apologies for the italics) - that this is not racist or sexist. 

I beg to differ. From the exaggerated hair to the exaggerated puffy lips and the hefty build, this cartoon is both racist and sexist. And take a wee look at the depiction of the umpire and the opponent Serena was up against. Both pearly white (though they are not either in real life). Both thin and depicted as small but, the important thing, they are white! 

So what if Serena lost her temper. Plenty white men have done that in the sports they've worked in. Why would Serena be different? Answer: she's black and she's a woman. 

I'm not suggesting for one minute that we treat black people and women differently. Just that we stop this pretense that somehow the playing field is level. And all us minorityand female people should stop moaning about how we are treated. 

And just while I have your attention, has anyone else noticed on the internet - especially Facebook and twitter - that there is total ignorance about the word woman. You know, like woman is the singular while the plural is women. It's amazing how many folk don't know the difference. 

There's also the use of the word female as a noun, as in 'females complain that'... Myself, I'm not a female. I'm a woman. And until I see men being described as males,I think it's time we outlawed the use of the word female altogether.