We all saw the video. We have seen the tweets. We have seen the other social media posts. Young black players on the WTA and ATP Tour calling out racism. Using their platforms to stand with the family of George Floyd and other persons who have been subject to police brutality in America causing their deaths.
What we have not seen are the white allies. Tennis is a global sport. Many of the persons who have made women's tennis as popular as it is right now are persons of colour. The highest paid female athlete in the world as reported by Forbes, is a 22 year old woman of colour, Naomi Osaka. A young woman whose father is Haitian and whose mother is Japanese. If anyone knows the struggle of race it is without a doubt this young woman. Naomi has not only used her social media presence of millions of followers to make a statement but she has literally gone outside to join protesters in the fight for justice.
Young Coco Gauff, just turned 16 years old, using her platform to not only bring awareness to the struggle of being black, but not backing down from calling out her white peers for their insensitivity. Osaka has done the same thing.
White tennis players, both current and former players have shown just what they value most. Lisa Raymond's tweet about property, without even pretending to understand the reason behind it says it all. Lisa Raymond, a lesbian and someone who apparently has no issue in calling out property destruction but clearly draws the line at standing for something. Anything.
What galls me the most is the absolute silence from the great thinkers in our sport. From the ones who write columns like Pete Bodo, Christopher Clarey and others, the silence from those who cover this sport is deafening.
I went through the social media of various journalists and commentators and while the list is not exhaustive, this is what I found:
Christopher Clarey - pictures of how much he is missing Roland Garros this year
Darren Cahill - Australian football with a slight nod to a video and a comment about "things calming down" (note to Darren, they have not)
Pete Bodo - absolutely nothing worth repeating
WTA - absolutely nothing but they did RT the Francis Tiafoe video so I guess that is something
ATP - following the WTA, they also did nothing but RT Francis Tiafoe's video with the same message.
Who says that both Tours don't communicate?
On #BlackOutTuesday, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Thiem tweeted black screens apparently in support of BlackoutTuesday. I guess they felt that they had done enough. The women on the other hand couldn't be bothered to even pretend to care.
We have always known that racism exists in tennis circles. It is apparent in the way how players of colour are and were covered and it is apparent that during this time, tennis has not changed. Even a review of the social media platforms of the Grand Slams shows nothing of consequence in standing in solidarity with the black players who make up part of the Tour. It is appalling to me as a person of colour who supports tennis by subscribing to the various media platforms, I am angry that these organisations do not think it worth their while to offer some amount of support to players who are standing against a system that continues to marginalise them.
The anger and disappointment that I am feeling right now makes me sad as what tennis has done is that it has once again proven to me that when the time comes for it to stand for something, it literally stands for nothing.
