U.S : We want justice for Serena WILLIAMS and Black athletes everywhere !

Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka deserved a fair match; now we're demanding change.

Join us in demanding real change in the USTA, on and off the court

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Dear friend,

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) allows for a deep culture of racism in American tennis and this time it robbed two Black women of the game they both deserved to play. Serena Williams, the greatest of all time, and Naomi Osaka, the future of tennis, faced off in a historic match of the ages. Instead of facilitating a fair game, Carlos Ramos continued the USTA practice of gender informed racism and hit Serena Williams with a series of questionable calls, including the extraordinary step of penalizing her a game for “verbal abuse” when disputing the decisions. This not only impacted her ability to play well, but created a controversy that has shadowed the success of Naomi Osaka, tainting her victory.

Tell the USTA that their culture of racism and sexism on and off the court must come to an end. Serena and Naomi deserve better!

Serena Williams has won 23 Grand Slams overall, has been called the “greatest” in the sport by other greats, has won 4 Slams in a row twice in her decades long career, and despite that has had so many bad calls against her by USTA officials and other regulation bodies that she was cited as a key reason for ‘video replay’ to be used on the courts.¹ 

USTA President, Katrina Adams, took the unusual step of both defending Serena and criticizing Ramos. She has indicated there will be conversations about what happened Saturday. This is a positive step but a commitment to more concrete action is needed. We all know that conversations are not enough to uproot the racism and sexism that plagues the sport; the USTA needs to commit to implicit bias trainings, audits, and better hiring practices if they are serious about change.

Help us to make sure that what happened to Serena on Saturday never happens again! Demand that the USTA take action by committing to audit, train and hire now.

Black athletes, and Black women athletes especially, work too damn hard for the racism in these regulation bodies to win the day, and the USTA has a long history of racism in their rank and culture. Just this year, Tony Nimmons, the first ever Black umpire in the USTA, left the Association and sued them for racial discrimination against Black people, maintaining the “whites-only” rule that plagues the sport. While still working for them, Nimmons also filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the USTA for racial discrimination; his claim was found “credible” by the Commission.²

Throughout her career, Serena Williams has not only needed to be talented enough to beat the best players in the world, she has had to be talented enough to overcome the real obstacles of American racism and sexism; imagine how impossibly exceptional you have to be to surpass that. This weekend, the USTA’s systemic issues of double standards when it comes to gender and race reached a crisis point; they need to be pushed to action or Black women athletes will continue to bear the brunt of injustice in the sport.

Join us in demanding justice by holding the USTA accountable! Black athletes work too hard and overcome too much for racism to rule the day. Help us win by signing now.

This isn’t the first time Serena has had to deal with gender informed racism in and around tennis. Throughout her career, Serena has endured an endless stream of abuse about her body for being too dark and too muscular.³ Earlier this year in Paris, she was banned from wearing a black catsuit because it was deemed “disrespectful”, despite the fact that she needed it for medical reasons.⁴ The catsuit helped with blood circulation after having a life threatening childbirth experience, an all too common experience for Black women in America, who are 243 percent more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes than white women.⁵

The USTA has benefited immensely from being able to showcase a talent like Serena’s, and it’s time that they showed up for her the way that she has shown up for tennis. She is an advocate of the game, and of race and gender equity on and off the court. In the moments right after the match, Serena stopped the booing from the crowd enraged at her treatment, and redirected them back to Naomi Osaka’s incredible talent and win. Serena Williams is as real as it gets, and together, we can join her in the fight for real change in our lifetime.

Join us and demand real change from the USTA. This is for Serena, and the future of Black women and girls in the sport and country.

Until justice is real, 

Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Jade, Evan, Johnny, Future, Corina, Chad, Mary, Saréya, Angela, Eesha, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

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References :

1. "The meaning of Serena Williams" The New York Times, August 25 2015 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/91585?t=10&akid=17964%2E1942551%2EJpop5X
2. "New lawsuit a consistent reminder of the persistent culture of racism in professional tennis" News One, April 30th 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/91586?t=12&akid=17964%2E1942551%2EJpop5X
3. "Serena Williams addresses the body shaming she's experienced for having muscles" Teen Vogue, May 31 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/91587?t=14&akid=17964%2E1942551%2EJpop5X
4. "Serena Williams is calling out sexism in tennis. Here's why" CNN, September 10 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/91588?t=16&akid=17964%2E1942551%2EJpop5X
5. "Nothing protects black women from dying in pregnancy and childbirth" ProPublica, December 7 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/74527?t=18&akid=17964%2E1942551%2EJpop5X

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Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.