Check the ump’s records for racist, sexist sanctions

Serena Williams behaved badly in the midst of the U.S. Open women’s tennis finals this week. She was penalized for three “conduct code” violations for being signaled by her coach, breaking her racket and calling the umpire a “thief.”

Williams did graciously celebrate Naomi Osaka’s victory — the first Japanese woman to win the U.S. Open. But she made it very clear she felt unfairly treated by the umpire who penalized her.

Two things can be true. Williams may have deserved the penalty, but she was unfairly penalized compared to what’s happened to men who committed the same types of offenses.

Serena knows better than the rest of us how professional tennis has treated her, and she says the penalties were more harsh than the penalties imposed on men for committing the same, or worse, conduct code violations. The news stories to date have cited only a few anecdotes about penalties imposed on male players like John McEnroe to prove that men get in trouble, too. But comparing Williams to McEnroe is like comparing a man who touched a woman’s leg to Harvey Weinstein. If the umpire who punished Williams has a record of treating women the same as men, so be it. But I have strong doubts that the record will show no gender bias in tennis because like many women, I’ve personally experienced too much gender bias to believe that it doesn’t exist in that sport, or anywhere else for that matter.

Some people have criticized Serena for speaking up about unequal treatment. Some people have actually used the words “entitled” and “privileged” to describe Serena’s actions. Think about that. A person whose sex and race place her two steps below the established and constitutionally mandated superiority of white men is being called entitled and privileged. Proud as she may be of her accomplishments as an athlete, she is also, always, a second-class citizen whose skin color and gender on the tennis court is ever-visible to the people around her.

The real question is whether the umpire has the capacity to open his mind to the possibility that he is both technically correct but still racist and sexist. Can he be self-critical enough to try to see the world through the eyes of a black woman? Does he even care that the issue is not whether the penalties he imposed fit within the range of possible sanctions, but rather, whether they reflect an unconscious bias that we all carry when we make judgments about people who don’t look like us? If the umpire is sincere about his belief that the penalties he imposed are correct, then he won’t mind publicly sharing his record of all penalties levied against all players over the past five years, broken down by race, gender, specific offense and penalty imposed.

If Serena is right that she did not receive equal penalties, then he does owe her an apology, even if she owes him one, too.