Last week, former tennis professional Ilie Nastase, who has largely been out of the public eye since his retirement but now captains Romania’s Fed Cup team, made racist remarks about World No. 1 Serena Williams, who is 22 weeks pregnant, and her unborn child – describing the child in repulsive, reprehensible terms as “chocolate with milk.”
Williams, who has suffered significant racist – and sexist abuse – throughout her illustrious, so-far 22-year career, has despite the odds become unarguably the greatest tennis player of all time. Having matched – or broken – most records on the circuit, Williams has the most Majors of any player, male or female, in tennis’ Open Era, and with her win at the 2017 Australian Open is only one title away from equalling the all-time record of Australian Margaret Court.
The American ace accidentally, she says, revealed her pregnancy on image-sharing app Snapchat – a fact later confirmed by her representative, who also substantiated rumours that the player had been 8 weeks pregnant during her undefeated Australian Open run this year.
Responding to the issue via social media rather than issue a public statement, Williams said it was ‘sad’ that people with belief systems such as those Nastase put on display were still part of modern-day society, but lauded the efforts of the ITF in removing Nastase from his Fed Cup captaincy and launching an investigation into the former player.
In her post, Williams quoted iconic American poet Maya Angelou, who devoted her poetry – and life – to civil rights activism until she died. Quoting from Angelou’s iconic tome “And Still I Rise,” Williams addressed Nastase with a stanza from the poem, which says:
You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Watch Serena Williams recite the powerful poem.
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