Tennis is a sport populated and for the most part dominated by white athletes. Throughout her career, Serena Williams has experienced both blatant and subtle discrimination. The words "I do not always feel colored" and "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background" explicitly articulate what Williams has faced during her career because of her skin color (Rankine 51-52). These phrases embody the racial struggles one of color might face due to their appearance in a socially dominated white society causing one to question their identity and if they belong there. After her “three-second celebratory dance on center court” Piers Morgan was going to name the victory dance “the Serena Shuffle” (Rankine 33-34). However, he learned that from the American press that it was actually a Crip Walk. When told that the dance she had performed was called a Crip Walk, a gangster dance, Williams asked if she looked like a gangster. To which Morgan responded that she did. This is an example of her addressability. A black athlete who participates in an overwhelmingly white sport is called a gangster because of a dance she performed. She made herself addressable by being a unique entity in Caucasian dominated
Tennis is a sport populated and for the most part dominated by white athletes. Throughout her career, Serena Williams has experienced both blatant and subtle discrimination. The words "I do not always feel colored" and "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background" explicitly articulate what Williams has faced during her career because of her skin color (Rankine 51-52). These phrases embody the racial struggles one of color might face due to their appearance in a socially dominated white society causing one to question their identity and if they belong there. After her “three-second celebratory dance on center court” Piers Morgan was going to name the victory dance “the Serena Shuffle” (Rankine 33-34). However, he learned that from the American press that it was actually a Crip Walk. When told that the dance she had performed was called a Crip Walk, a gangster dance, Williams asked if she looked like a gangster. To which Morgan responded that she did. This is an example of her addressability. A black athlete who participates in an overwhelmingly white sport is called a gangster because of a dance she performed. She made herself addressable by being a unique entity in Caucasian dominated