Romanian Journalist Penalized For His Racist Remarks on Serena Williams

The 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams was insulted on a Romanian news channel by a late-evening TV show host, Radu Banciu. He is also a sports journalist and made racist comments on her. 

“Serena Williams looks like those monkeys at the zoo with the red butt. If you put some pants over that butt, they look exactly as Serena Williams looks on court,” Banciu said on TV.

Banciu has been penalized with a fine of RON 8,000 (EUR 1,700) by the National Council for Combatting Discrimination (CNCD). The CNCD termed his comments in the category of “extreme racism” as he compared Williams to a monkey.

Later, CNCD released their statement and stated that it’s a discriminatory remark and it violates the right to dignity. “Black people slavery was based, among others, on comparing them with monkeys. Consequently, such statements represent a form of extreme racism,” CNCD said.

American World Number eight, Serena Williams has faced racism throughout her career. During her outburst at US Open 2018 finals, the Australia journal, Herald Sun depicted a controversial cartoon of Williams. The critics termed that the offensive image used racist and sexist stereotypes of African-American people.

However, the newspaper and cartoonist Mark Knight gainsaid their racist or sexist depiction and they mentioned about portraying Serena’s behavior during the Grand Slam final in New York last year.

The National Association of Black Journalists in the US criticized the repulsive cartoon depicted by the Australian press and the public termed the “ape-like” portrait to be offensive.

In the picture, Naomi Osaka had a contrast depiction. Her father is Haitian and mother Japanese and she was portrayed as a white woman with blonde hair.

Serena Williams lost her fourth consecutive Grand Slam final match at the US Open 2019. She was defeated by Bianca Andreescu in the Flushing Meadows finals.