“Sponsors Weren’t as Supportive” – Serena Williams on Struggles of Being an African-American
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Former World No.1 Serena Williams recalled how it was like to be on the tour when she got bigoted treatment from her opponents, crowds, sponsors, and everyone because she is black. Williams revealed that she and her sister, Venus Williams, had gone through a lot when they started to play professional tennis in the 90s. However, the Williams sisters were never afraid of it. They always let their racquet do the talking.
Serena recalled that the sponsors rejected her in the 90s for being an African-American. She revealed one primary anguish she and Venus went through, and still do, was people calling tennis ‘our sport.’
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“We don’t really like it, we’re gonna play you harder, we’re gonna do things to win to look different so we can have this opportunity when you’re not gonna play everyone else like this but it gives you that is what we are going to do,” she said in an interview with Naomi Campbell.
Serena Williams reveals biased treatment
“Also, just having to deal with different sponsors, they weren’t as supportive because I’m an African-American. So that is also interesting. Then just you know when you are coming into a sport like tennis where historically it has been hundreds of years of people that are white and successful and are doing really well,” she added.
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“But Venus and I were able to change that narrative and say people who have less can do better because they want to work even harder. They want to be able to improve the situation. There were a lot of things that we had to go through. For me, I had that awful experience of being booed by the entire crowd,” she concluded.
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“My Favorite Player of All Time is Serena Williams” – Mike Tyson
The Williams sisters are in the latter half of their careers. However, they have already proven to the world that anyone can achieve great success with hard work and passion. They have inspired many through their journey and are role models for millions around the world.
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