Aussie newspaper slammed for racist cartoon of Serena
SYDNEY — A cartoon in an Australian newspaper has come under fire for being “racist,” “sexist” and ‘repugnant” toward American tennis player Serena Williams, according to a report in the BBC yesterday.
Mark Knight’s cartoon was published in Australia’s most-read newspaper, the Herald Sun yesterday, and referenced Williams’s outburst and showed the umpire asking Osaka: “Can you just let her win?” The cartoon showed Williams jumping above a broken racquet next to a baby’s pacifier, the BBC reported.
Critics, including author JK Rowling, compared the cartoon to past racist caricatures of AfricanAmerican people. Others on social media pointed out that Naomi Osaka, who is of mixed race, had been drawn as a white woman with blonde hair.
The National Association of Black Journalists in the US denounced the cartoon as “repugnant on many levels.”
“It not only exudes racist, sexist caricatures of both women, but Williams’ depiction is unnecessarily sambo-like,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Knight denied it was racist, saying he had intended to depict only the tennis player’s “poor behavior.” He said “the world has just gone crazy.” “The cartoon was just about Serena on the day having a tantrum. That’s basically it,” he told the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Knight also rejected a suggestion that he would not draw a similar image of a man. As evidence, he tweeted his recent cartoon of tennis player Nick Kyrgios.
The cartoon has been strongly defended by Knight and the newspaper’s editor, Damon Johnston, who denied the cartoon is racist or sexist, the BBC added.
“It rightly mocks poor behavior by a tennis legend... Mark has the full support of everyone,” Johnston said in a tweet.
One sociology expert told the BBC that Knight had used “a genre that has a long history of racist impact.”
“The author may not even realize their own framing of the world has been shaped by history of racism in Australia,” said emeritus Prof. Andrew Jakubowicz from the University of Technology in Sydney.
He said there had been “a tradition” in many Australian cartoons to exaggerate physical characteristics of minority groups, including indigenous Australians, to “trigger a reaction” — such as humor.
Knight was also accused of racism last month for a cartoon which showed faceless black figures fighting in a Melbourne subway, a reference to a debate about African-Australian street gangs.