For years, Serena Williams has mostly avoided speaking about hot-button political issues. The few times that she did say something, it was always blown up and made into a major news story. But over the past two years especially, Serena has been talking more about race, America’s racial issues and how she feels as one of the most prominent #BlackGirlMagic heroines in the world. Maybe it’s because she’s in her 30s now and she’s matured, or maybe she just feels more comfortable these days as she’s generally considered the greatest of all time (or at the very least, one of a handful of GOATs), but she has been talking more and I’m listening. This week, she posted this to her Facebook (I made a few minor edits because she has then/than issues).
Today I asked my 18 year old nephew (to be clear he’s black) to drive me to my meetings so I can work on my phone #safteyfirst. In the distance I saw cop on the side of the road. I quickly checked to see if he was obliging by the speed limit. Then I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend. All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds. I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew. He’s so innocent. So were all “the others”
I am a total believer that not “everyone” is bad. It is just the ones that are ignorant, afraid, uneducated, and insensitive that is affecting millions and millions of lives.
Why did I have to think about this in 2016? Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives? But I realized we must stride on- for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go. I then wondered than have I spoken up? I had to take a look at me. What about my nephews? What if I have a son and what about my daughters?
As Dr. Martin Luther King said ” There comes a time when silence is betrayal”.
I
Won’t
Be
Silent
I don’t really take this as a call to action. It’s more like Serena using her platform to acknowledge that she thinks about these issues too, and even a woman in her position doesn’t have the answers. I mean, even Beyonce has come out harder and more militant than Serena (and I’ve never loved Beyonce more for it). Serena IS in a position to – at the very least – say more, be a voice within her community. But it’s her call.
Incidentally, I didn’t know this until Jezebel made an aside about it, but did you know that Serena does not vote? She doesn’t vote in any election. She told Bloomberg News in June that even though she doesn’t like Donald Trump at all, she’s not involved in politics and “I don’t vote. It goes back to my religion.” She’s a Jehovah’s Witness. Witnesses can’t vote?!? I looked it up – it’s a thing! Witnesses don’t vote. Their religion practices non-involvement in politics.
Photos of Serena at Milan Fashion Week on Sept. 23, courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN.
well she could vote if she wanted to because i don’t think she’s practising otherwise she wouldn’t date married man.
Boom. And yes.
Typical first comment on black issues. Boom!
And yes.
Had that thought/feeling recently.
It’s hard when so many descriptions describe the bad guy as: “6ft tall, black man” as we saw with the assault on the tennis star you don’t even have to come in to the same vicinity of skin tone, just tall and black.
My baby brothers are tall for their age at 9. They’re goofy, sweet and so innocent. One day they will be old enough to go out into a world where to some people they’re just a description on a police bulletin. It gets you in the gut. The fact one day they’ll be old enough to drive on their own? Ugh.
The MLK quote is beautiful.
I’m a light skinned Puerto Rican, so I personally cannot attest to much in the way of prejudice, but when my best friend Toya told me she had the talk with her man child who was turning 16 and ready to drive, my Heart broke in ways I can’t comprehend for her and her reality. The two of us weeper at how scary it is, and how careful he has to be. He’s a big, strong black man-child, but he’s still that, a child, HER child. I cannot fathom. I really can’t.
I have the luxury of worrying about my half white kid getting pulled over and calling me that he’s in trouble, not that he would get pulled over and possibly not come back. Terrifying.
Exactly. They seem so big and strong to others but to those who love them they’re babies, CHILDREN. It’s disheartening to see them described every which way but that whenever an incident with the police happens.
That’s where I Live Right Now ESE , My family is Huge, a BIG contingent of my family just a Bunch of Brown dudes that love to get together listen to Merengue Loud and Play Dominoes at each other’s home and so on, Some of em learned English when they were in their late 20s/30s/40s so the grasp is good if you speak slow etc… what happens if a Police officer stops em after one of those nights or they don’t comply quickly enough for their tastes, or their accent is too thick or whatever the F*ck else? ya Know??
Also yesterday On Yet another Hashtag day #AlfredOlango i was stuck with this sh*t and it’s been on my Mind since Philando’s Murder: The Fact that all these Black women Have to record/bear witness to their World Changing, Their Loved one Being snatched by Sanctioned paid leave State Thugs and then keep recording… stay calm.. Narrate.. so that A) The memory of their loved ones isn’t soiled, their victim status called into question and B) so So in a Calm and Servile enough fashion to Also Not end up arrested or in a body Bag Themselves …is kind of sooooo much for me
God bless those women because God…I try to keep it straight and factual all the other times, I try to approach ignorance with reason and calm but honestly I think I would break into a million pieces if it ever happened to me. They have more strength than I can imagine.
Yes. Their victimhood must be performed perfectly, while a miscarriage of justice is happening to them in front of their eyes. Otherwise people will judge them, too. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating.
And that’s the terrifying thing about our world right now. Black men and women have to be perfect or their lives are in danger. Even if they do everything right their lives are in danger.
We live in a world where being black means if you try and help someone who is autistic, you get shot for it, and having a traffic violation is warranting a death sentence.
Whenever I see a POC pulled over I immediately get nervous for them. I can’t imagine being in their shoes. Scary.
And please go to the jw.org site for the reasonings behind JW’s not voting. It stops there from being any misinformation:
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/political-neutrality/
My husband was raised a witness , and they don’t vote or pledge alliance to the flag.
It’s like that awful opening scene of “American Crime Story” (Episode 5: The Race Card) where Cochran’s driving his children to Hamburger Hamlet. His daughters will never unsee that. FFS.
This is not a political party issue. It is a basic human rights issue. And I’m glad she uses her platform to talk about it.
Part of the problem is that the public tends to forget. We are outraged at the time, but a year later it’s just become part of the landscape. You become numb to it. Seriously how many of us know what happened to tha police officers in most of the shootings from the last five years? Most of them are back at work as if nothing happened. It’s vile.
Police brutality isn’t just about race anymore. They shot and murdered a 6 year old child when they filled a car with bullets. No info, no facts just shoot first.
We need to make deadly force rare. Do the crime do the time, not do the crime time to die.
I’m glad she’s speaking up. We have 18,000 separate police forces in the U.S. It will take a concerted effort for all of them to get training in mental health issues and use of force. In the meantime, I’m not sure what we can all do but keep speaking out and hope that individual officers begin to understand implicit bias and even ask for training.
I am a Black woman. I was born in 1957 in the southern state of Alabama. As children we couldn’t play in the parks, drink from the water fountains, sit at the front of a bus, go into cafes and restaurants, and use public restrooms/toliets. There was so much more we were not allowed to do because of our black skin. But the worst thing was when police came into our neighborhood. Sometimes they came to arrest a Black man, who had too much to drink. Each time they came, they (always 2 White cops) would beat the man with their night sticks/clubs before putting him in the back of their police car. We never saw any of the men resist arrest, but they were beaten anyway. The other times White policemen came into the neighborhood, half White babies arrived 9 months later. When my family had to travel by car to another city, generally for a funeral of a relative, everyone in the car trembled with fear if a police car came behind us. We knew Black men who had been pulled from their cars by White policemen and beaten. We were afraid it would happen to our daddy. Fear of policemen, regardless of the color of their skin remains with me, because I have been a victim also. I wasn’t beaten or shot, but in the state of Texas, I was stopped for speeding (5 miles over the speed limit) by two cars with one White police officer in each car. One of the policemen told me to follow them in my car. One police car in front of me, the other behind. They led me about 2 miles down a road surrounded by woods. It was around 9 pm. It was very dark. My sister was sitting in the passeger seat. The deeper we travelled into the woods the more frighten she became, she kept saying they are going to lynch us. The police car in the lead stopped. The policeman came to my window and said, “We don’t want to wake the judge up at this time of night. The ticket is only $35. You can give me the money.” We were so happy they weren’t going to kill us. I gladly paid him. It happened near Tyler, Texas a little over 30 years ago. I have had a few more bad experiences with policemen. I know all policemen are not corrupt. But there isn’t a day that pass that I do not pray for the safety from police for all of my Black and Biracial male relatives.
Heavens! Really scary story that!
Thank God you and your sister weren’t raped – I honestly thought that was going to be the end of your story, and my stomach sank. I assumed they would ask for sexual favors to let you go. Horrible, that any women especially women of color with the added racial stereotyping held over your heads would be put through that. As a fellow Alabamian I’m eyeballs deep in the cycle of racism and bigotry, but from a different perspective: I am white. I was lucky enough not to be raised by a racist family, but good God, I sometimes feel like I need brain bleach to forget half of what I’ve witnessed. In 2016, racism in the South now is very, very covert. It’s unspoken; it’s under the covers. If you are white and are bold enough to speak out against racism and you are progressive and pro-diversity, you will be punished. Your career may be impacted negatively; you may be socially ostracized. It happened to me, but I still won’t shut up about it. I have lost so many “friends” who couldn’t accept their own entitlement. But it’s worth it. Because I know some very intelligent and wonderful black people down here who are going to change the world – and they’re worth fighting for. I’m also interested in what Serena has to say and I applaud celebrities like her for using their celebrity for something positive – as a platform to share stories. Storytelling can change the world. I don’t play “shut up and dance/sing/act/perform”. I expect more from my entertainers and athletes.
Thank you… God bless you, and stay strong. More people like you are needed in this never ending battle.