Racist Serena Williams cartoon is sadly illustrative of Australian cartoonists

[C C]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018...acist.html

EXCERPT: . . . Mark Knight, one of Australia’s most infamous cartoonists, has previously been called out for his racism and sexism. Just last month he was lambasted over his dehumanizing depiction of African teenagers in Melbourne trashing a train station, which stoked an ongoing racist dog whistle driven by erstwhile almost–prime minister Peter Dutton (and faithfully carried out by the Herald Sun). In 2012, he used the annual Australia Day debate to joke about the genocide of Indigenous Australians, with a cartoon of then–Prime Minister Julia Gillard fleeing an Indigenous protest while saying, “Geez, if the Aboriginals had’ve put up a fight like this in 1788, we might not be bloody well here celebrating Australia Day…!”

Knight is no stranger to sexist portrayals of powerful women, with a 1999 cartoon portraying the female leader of the centrist Australian Democrats in bed with conservative Prime Minister John Howard. Beds are continued to be a favorite Knight trope for depicting the deal-making of women in politics—he portrayed Gillard, Australia’s first and only female PM, in bed with male leaders on multiple occasions throughout her 2010–13 reign. Her partner, Tim, was predictably emasculated by Knight, while her conversations with then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were “girl talk.” (Also, handbags!) The exaggerated Gillard profile—long nose, large ass—is distinctly Knightian, and although it was perpetuated and reinforced by other political cartoonists and at disgusting opposition party fundraisers, it’s fair to argue Knight is most responsible for its ubiquity.

His cartooning style is far from unique: Australia’s white, middle-age, male cartoonists have long been called out for their bigotry... (Larry Pickering - Bill Leak) [...] Many on this side of the Pacific have pointed out that Knight’s Sambo-style drawing looks like something out of a history book [...] But this kind of “racism from another time” continues to pop up in Australia, which has a very small black population and yet has somehow picked up many of America’s most racist black stereotypes, from basketball stars donning blackface to KKK costumes. Australia just doesn’t seem to get it, something one University of Sydney professor calls “ignorance from a distance”—most Australians simply don’t know any black people....

MORE: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018...acist.html

RELATED: JK Rowling condemns 'racist and sexist' cartoon of Serena Williams at US Open ... Herald Sun Cartoonist Defends Racist, Sexist Serena Williams Cartoon

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[Secular Sanity]

Back in the day, John Mcenroe was disqualified. His first violation was for simply glaring at a lineswoman.

"During the changeover, he stopped in front of a lineswoman he thought had made a bad call, glaring at her while bouncing a ball on his racket. The chair umpire, Gerry Armstrong, gave McEnroe a conduct code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct."

If anything, I feel bad for Naomi Osaka. Not only was she depicted as a blonde white woman but she had already won the first set. She was doing well and may have won without the code violations. I think she’s the one that was robbed.

[Syne]

I don't know about that artists other work, but there's nothing racist or sexist in the Serena cartoon. It's called caricature...cartoonists use it all the time. And it wasn't even much of an exaggeration of her behavior.

If anything, I feel bad for Naomi Osaka. .... I think she’s the one that was robbed.

Agreed.

[C C]

[...] If anything, I feel bad for Naomi Osaka. Not only was she depicted as a blonde white woman but she had already won the first set. She was doing well and may have won without the code violations. I think she’s the one that was robbed.

The Nordic makeover should be the most glaring aspect of the cartoon, though Knight could lamely proclaim it a generic portrayal of Serena's tennis playing rather than involving that specific match / opponent.

[...] Back in the day, John Mcenroe was disqualified. His first violation was for simply glaring at a lineswoman.

"During the changeover, he stopped in front of a lineswoman he thought had made a bad call, glaring at her while bouncing a ball on his racket. The chair umpire, Gerry Armstrong, gave McEnroe a conduct code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct."

Yah, bad boy behavior was routine for McEnroe even late in his game; he was constantly mocked by the press of the countries he played in. There's a tiny tad of "Lord Protectors" type racism / sexism mingling in this, too, via subtextually treating an applicable party as "special" or "challenged" because of ethnic or gender grounding; and thereby deserving of tweaked standards or exemptions, and elevated sympathy. Wherein political agents and celebrity figures, and organizations, use these incidents or broader circumstances for either personal career bolstering or soapbox posturing for furthering legislation, power-grab movements, etc.

Controversy was never far from McEnroe, however; in his fourth-round match against Mikael Pernfors at the 1990 Australian Open, McEnroe was ejected from the tournament for swearing at the umpire, supervisor, and referee. He was warned by the umpire for intimidating a lineswoman, and then docked a point for smashing a racket. McEnroe was apparently unaware that a new Code of Conduct, which had been introduced just before the tournament, meant that a third code violation would not lead to the deduction of a game but instead would result in immediate disqualification; therefore, when McEnroe unleashed a volley of abuse at umpire Gerry Armstrong, he was defaulted. He was also fined $6,500 for the incidents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McEnr...n_the_tour

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[Syne]

There's a tiny tad of "Lord Protectors" type racism / sexism mingling in this, too, via subtextually treating an applicable party as "special" or "challenged" because of ethnic or gender grounding; and thereby deserving of tweaked standards or exemptions, and elevated sympathy. Wherein political agents and celebrity figures, and organizations, use these incidents or broader circumstances for either personal career bolstering or soapbox posturing for furthering legislation, power-grab movements, etc.

I'd say more than a tad. It's at the crux of why this receives any attention at all.

[Magical Realist]

[Image: 3abcff92-91b2-480a-9b56-910cfd1dd3a2.jpe...offset=0x0]

[stryder]

I didn't know who was playing, or how good they were but what I do know is the event happened not because of what scores were kept but the noise that was made.

If anything it is reminiscent of John Mcenroe. But that's the thing, it's not something that hasn't happened before and when it happened before what happened.... The tabloids lapped it up. It didn't matter if Mcenroe could play tennis or not, in fact it actually dwarfed his tennis career (He often ended up doing advertisements and the like with "You can not be serious... man!" as a catchphrase.)

The same might be said of the outbursts intention to actually creating the attention (PR good or bad). After all it's netted more news spots than just a bland game of tennis.

[Yazata]

If anything, I feel bad for Naomi Osaka. Not only was she depicted as a blonde white woman but she had already won the first set. She was doing well and may have won without the code violations. I think she’s the one that was robbed.

She won, but was overshadowed by all the Serena Williams theatrics and ended up apologizing (for winning!) Osaka is the first Japanese tennis player to ever win one of the four Grand Slam tennis singles events. That's probably a very big deal back in Japan. But her moment in the sun got rained on by a much bigger ego.

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I didn't know who was playing, or how good they were but what I do know is the event happened not because of what scores were kept but the noise that was made.

I don't follow tennis and frankly don't care about the sport very much. It was a celebrity acting like a spoiled child and throwing a tantrum, and all the breathless "news" coverage that generated, that attracted my belated attention.

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Racist Serena Williams cartoon is sadly illustrative of Australian cartoonists

I don't think that the cartoon was particularly "racist". In fact I liked it. It captured Serena Williams' childish antics very well.

On the other hand, the opinion writer attacking all Australian cartoonists based on her own morally judgemental reaction to a single rather innocuous cartoon strikes me as objectionable

[Secular Sanity]

She won, but was overshadowed by all the Serena Williams theatrics and ended up apologizing (for winning!) Osaka is the first Japanese tennis player to ever win one of the four Grand Slam tennis singles events. That's probably a very big deal back in Japan. But her moment in the sun got rained on by a much bigger ego.

Oh, you’re right. The headlines made it sound like her penalty had an impact on the victory, but Naomi wrapped it up with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. They implied that it affected Serena's game and that she played poorly right after that incident.  ESPN is reporting that her coach acknowledged that he had tried to signal her but didn’t think that she saw him. He said that he thinks every player gets coaching during the matches.

As far as the caricature is concerned, C C’s link points to several other iffy depictions from Mark Knight.

[Syne]

As far as the caricature is concerned, C C’s link points to several other iffy depictions from Mark Knight.

Genetic fallacy.