Serena Willams announced her impending retirement from professional tennis in Vogue magazine on Tuesday. As we celebrate her greatness and all that Williams has achieved on the court – the 23 major singles titles, the four Olympic gold medals, the 319 weeks at No 1 in the world rankings – I think it’s important to not skim over all that she had to endure off of it and the inspiration she’s given to Black girls in particular.
I remember when my daughters Imani and Baby Sierra were a little younger and I was watching a segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter. They were in the family room with me and not really paying attention until they overheard then-ESPN commentators Jemele Hill and Michael Smith discussing the onslaught of body shaming, slander and general criticism that Serena was being bombarded with. My daughters both stopped what they were doing and began listening intently as it was reported that Serena had been accused of being “too manly”. One tennis coach had said that he didn’t want his players to look like Serena, others were saying that her butt was too big, some were still criticizing the beads that she and her sister Venus wore when they were younger. Other critics said that Serena had the wrong body type for tennis and therefore wasn’t fully realizing her potential on the court.
