Storm grows over ‘racist’ Serena cartoon
An Australian newspaper defiantly republished a controversial cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams on its front-page on Wednesday, slapping aside politically correct accusations that the drawing was racist and sexist.
Melbourne’s Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight’s caricature of Williams throwing a tantrum at the US Open was originally printed on Monday, attracting widespread condemnation from across the world.
Under the front-page headline “WELCOME TO PC WORLD”, the newspaper wrote on Wednesday that “if the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, our new politically correct life will be very dull indeed”.
The veteran cartoonist said he had suspended his Twitter account to protect his family and friends.
Prior to disabling his account, his tweet of the cartoon had attracted more than 22,000 comments, most of them critical.
Knight labelled the outcry as a sign that the “world has just gone crazy”.
“I drew this cartoon Sunday night after seeing the US Open final, and seeing the world’s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting,” he said.
“The cartoon about Serena is about her poor behaviour on the day, not about race.”
The caricature has also sparked renewed debate in Australia about racist and sexist discourse in the highly multicultural nation.
“I thought they went over the top. The depiction of Serena was pretty vile,” Melbourne commuter Louise Rodbourn said, echoing the mood of many city workers.
Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, smashed her racquet and called the umpire a thief and a liar while she was losing Saturday’s final to Haitian-Japanese Naomi Osaka. –