Cartoon of Serena Williams evokes racist imagery
Australian newspaper cartoonist Mark Knight is under fire because of his cartoon of Serena Williams with exaggerated racial features that hearkens back to minstrel and Jim Crow era imagery of black Americans.
Williams lost the U.S. Open on Saturday, to what many believe was an unfair call by a referee, and told the ref she did not cheat and in a passionate plea asked for an apology. The Washington Post offered context saying the imagery was often meant to dehumanize African-Americans a century ago. The National Association of Black Journalists issued a statement condemning the illustration calling it racist and sexist.
Last month Knight was also criticized for a cartoon about a politician advocating for train safety that showed faceless African youth vandalizing a train station. These images by this Australian cartoonist, to me, are examples of the global nature of anti-blackness and how it still permeates mainstream media.
Williams lost the U.S. Open on Saturday, to what many believe was an unfair call by a referee, and told the ref she did not cheat and in a passionate plea asked for an apology. The Washington Post offered context saying the imagery was often meant to dehumanize African-Americans a century ago. The National Association of Black Journalists issued a statement condemning the illustration calling it racist and sexist.
Last month Knight was also criticized for a cartoon about a politician advocating for train safety that showed faceless African youth vandalizing a train station. These images by this Australian cartoonist, to me, are examples of the global nature of anti-blackness and how it still permeates mainstream media.
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