2002-2003 upon Serena having won four straight majors (Wimbledon being that fourth). Going forward after the winning French + Australia Opens and 2014’s U.S Open, should Serena win this years [2015] U.S Open, she will have achieved a calendar-year Grand Slam record—a record only achieved by three other women in the history of tennis.
I can’t believe I’m standing here with another Serena Slam.I’m having so much fun out here. I’ve never dreamt that I would still be out here playing and winning Wimbledon. Serena Williams 7.11.15
Since the very day Serena stepped foot on the tennis court dominated by an audience and players un-like her, she has had her share of resistance. And through it all (even as recent as eight days ago when she had to tell the hecklers ‘Don’t try me…”
https://youtu.be/1Lp97bPSjrE
…Serena has stood the tests of time and endured it all and dominated: unwelcomingly, unyielding, unapologetically, and as of today: undefeated-ly; after triumphing (6-4 to 6-4) over 21 year-old Spanish tennis player Garbine Murguruza
… making her #1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association.
But it’s not as easy as should be-all triumphs considered.
Despite quintupling Sharapova’s prize money and holding an 18-2 career record against her—including 17 consecutive wins head-to-head—Williams makes half of what her pseudo-rival manages in endorsements. -Tomas Rios
Critics of her critics are reporting that despite her triumphs over the years of having triumphed over her colleagues and peers, still, it hasn’t yielded the tennis titan half of what her rivals manage in endorsements.
It’s weird, here you have Serena who won an Olympic gold medal representing the U.S. and has this rags-to-riches story, but it hasn’t helped her in the way it has helped prior black female athletes -U.S African American Sports History professor at Grand Valley State University Lou Moore.
He continues:
“Especially in the post-Civil Rights era, black female athletes representing the U.S. have been held up as examples of our progress, but in Serena’s case, dominating a traditionally white, middle-class sport hits on American racism and sexism in such a way that it overrides the usual narrative.”
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/619886370081869824 Tomas Rios of The Daily Beast reports:
The idea that Williams transgresses against feminine beauty norms, particularly within the context of tennis, is readily proven. After all, the common mental image of a women’s tennis player is white and lithe, in perfect harmony with Western ideals of feminine beauty, while Williams is black and built like a powerlifter. She is an unprecedented affront to our collective notion of the beautiful female athlete. Further, because Williams’s body is itself so unfamiliar in a mainstream Western context, there is the sense that, like so many other black athletes, she has been gifted an unfair genetic advantage. This serves to obfuscate the fact that all elite athletes have some natural advantage of some sort while also minimizing the sacrifice and dedication it takes to become an elite athlete regardless of natural advantage. In that sense, it’s surprising that Williams’s story of picking up a tennis racquet in Compton and ending up the greatest women’s tennis player of all time hasn’t been turned into a homily on Americana.
“If Serena were smaller, lighter, and less connected to her roots she would probably be more popular,” says Kendall. “But racism means that many Americans look at her refusal to be ashamed of coming from the inner city, her rejection of European beauty aesthetics, and her spectacular record and see a negro that doesn’t know her place.”
In the strictest sense, Williams indeed does not know her place. She is a black woman dominating a white sport and that triggers the fear essential to the efficacy of racism and sexism. It is no secret that white men have owned most every sector of Western society for centuries now, and any progress made on that front has come with, at minimum, the overt vilification of those leading the fight. And while Williams’s career will always be inextricably linked to the racism and sexism weaponized against her, there is a comforting fact at the core of this discussion: Serena Williams has already won. She has the trophies to prove it. 
That being the case, despite having come her way-the perils and all the “ratchet”–none of that matters more than, and at the end of the day over who’s best at swinging that racket. 
#Takenotes…in your mind, for your life (or hindsight)… There is:
- Assistance
…and then there is
- Resistance
Assistance helps you along-crowd assistance, praise, preference and such. Fine, but it can also make
