Debbie Schlussel: Venus/Serena Dad: Bored by My Daughters = Racism

By Debbie Schlussel

If you think Venus and Serena Williams (VenuSerena) are "boring" (and they are), then you are a racist. So says, Dad of VenuSerena, Richard Williams, whose history of crying "racism" rivals a certain fable character's history of crying "wolf". In an interview with AP, he said, "When it was Steffi Graf or Chris Evert that won, or Monica Seles -- but when those two black girls came and beat up everyone, tennis was 'not exciting.'" Fans think VenuSerena made tennis "not exciting anymore. It's boring."

Message to Big Daddy Williams: If your daughters looked like Tyra Banks and Beyonce, maybe fans would find your daughters exciting. It has nothing to do with race. Fans weren't excited by Seles or Graf, either. But they just loved Anna Kournikova. Her tennis skills (she never won a tournament) had nothing to do with it. Crying "racism" all the time doesn't help. Nor does the Wayans brothers' hilarious Comedy Central parody of VenuSerena in a "Got Milk?" ad. Sports is showbiz, and winning Wimbledon--as Venus did Saturday--just ain't enough, these days.

Posted by Debbie on July 5, 2005 04:12 PM to Debbie Schlussel