Australian newspaper stands behind cartoon of Williams

A cartoon of Serena Williams that has been widely condemned as a racist depiction of the tennis great has been partially reprinted on the front page of the Melbourne, Australia-based newspaper that initially published it.

The Herald Sun newspaper printed an edited portion of the cartoon — featuring the 23time Grand Slam winner jumping on a broken racket during her dispute with a chair umpire in the U.S. Open final — among caricatures of other famous people Wednesday under the headline “Welcome to the PC World.”

The newspaper, which has Australia’s largest circulation, has defended cartoonist Mark Knight’s depiction of Williams and is asserting that the condemnation, which has come from around the world, is driven by political correctness.

In comments published by News Corp., Knight said he created the cartoon after watching Williams’ “tantrum” during her U.S. Open final loss to Naomi Osaka on Saturday and that it was designed to illustrate “her poor behavior on the day, not about race.”

Critics of Knight’s cartoon described it as a clear example of a stereotype facing black women, depicting Williams as an irate, hulking, big-mouthed black woman jumping up and down on a broken racket. The umpire was shown telling a blond, slender woman — meant to be Osaka, who is Japanese and Haitian — “Can you just let her win?”