Serena Jameka Williams, was born on
September 26th, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to her father, Richard
Price, and her mother, Oracene Williams. Serena is the youngest of their
daughters, and shortly after she was born, Rich and Oracene moved the
family to Compton, California, where they had Serena learning to play tennis,
at the tender age of 3.
Now, while Serena’s parents were the ones who originally coached her, it was another man, Richard Williams (who had no relation to Serena’s dad), that took her under his wing and taught her the finer points of the sport. And when Serena turned 9, her family moved from Compton, to West Palm Beach, Florida, so she could attend the world renowned tennis academy of Rick Macci. Now, Rick’s academy catered to the prodigious tennis student, as well as the professional touring athlete. And Rich, Serena’s father, figured she could get the kind of training she needed to compete on a world-class level, there. Ultimately though, Serena’s father saw how dedicating herself to the academy’s regimen, would mean neglecting her studies and putting severe limits on a young Serena’s social life.
Now, while Serena’s parents were the ones who originally coached her, it was another man, Richard Williams (who had no relation to Serena’s dad), that took her under his wing and taught her the finer points of the sport. And when Serena turned 9, her family moved from Compton, to West Palm Beach, Florida, so she could attend the world renowned tennis academy of Rick Macci. Now, Rick’s academy catered to the prodigious tennis student, as well as the professional touring athlete. And Rich, Serena’s father, figured she could get the kind of training she needed to compete on a world-class level, there. Ultimately though, Serena’s father saw how dedicating herself to the academy’s regimen, would mean neglecting her studies and putting severe limits on a young Serena’s social life.
Additionally, Rich stopped sending Serena
to junior tennis tournaments when she was 10, even though she had a 46-3
record, on the U.S. Tennis Association’s junior tour, and was ranked # 1
amongst players her age. And the reason Rich did this was, he began seeing the bigoted reactions of white people towards his daughters, when they’d win these
championships. So, after hearing enough bigoted and derogatory comments from
white folks about his girls, in 1995, Rich decided that he’d coach his daughters on
how to play the sport himself, from the safety of their home.
Serena’s first professional match was in
October of 1995, when she was just 14, at the “Bell Challenge” in Quebec, Canada—and
thereafter, her career went as follows…
Serena’s won 72 career singles titles, 23
doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles. And that includes 39 Grand Slam tournaments.
She’s a four-time Olympic Gold medalist, and she’s won more than $88 million
dollars in prize monies—more than any other female athlete to date.
William Henry Cosby Jr., we know him as
“Bill” y’all, was born on July 12th, 1937, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. His mother, Anna Pearl, was a maid, and his father, William Henry
Cosby Sr., served as a custodian in the u.s. Navy.
Bill was the class president, as well as
the captain of his baseball and track and field
teams in middle school. And throughout his high school years, he excelled
in sports, but struggled academically. Teachers stated that he was smart, but he was more interested in being the center of attention, than focusing on his studies. So, he left school before graduating in 1956, to enlisted in the Navy. And while he continued playing sports in the armed forces, he got his G.E.D. This led to him acquiring a scholarship to attend Temple University in 1961.
At Temple, he studied physical education,
while he ran track and played on the college’s football team. Bill also worked
as a bartender, while off campus, and it was there, he learned about his
ability to make people laugh, which kept his tip jar full. And that’s
when he decided to parlay that skill, into a career in stand-up comedy.
Now, as a stand-up comedian, what set
Bill apart, was the fact that his comedic stylings were, for the most part,
“ethnically neutral”. Meaning, while Bill’s contemporaries, like Dick Gregory
for example, were becoming more outspoken about the injustices that white
fascism foisted on the public at large, and Black folks in particular, Bill’s
comedy was decidedly non-threatening to a mainstream audience—thus, movie and TV
executives were courting him with offers to appear in several projects.
And this led to Bill’s appearances on movies and TV shows like: “I Spy” (1965-1968), “Fat Albert and the
Cosby Kids” (1972-1985), “Uptown Saturday Night”(1974)—and this movie is a
bonafide classic y’all, if you haven’t seen it, please do, “Let’s Do it Again”
(1975), “Mother, Juggs and Speed” (1976), but I think what Bill will forever be
known for, is his role as Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”, which ran from
1984 ‘til 1992.
Now, when this show originally aired, I
refused to watch it, ‘cause the sit-com’s characters, seemed more like
caricatures of the “perfect” (or perfectly anglophilic) Black family. With the
father being a doctor, the mother being a lawyer, and the kids only worrying
about improving their grades at school—but, in the wake of shows like “Love and
Hip-Hop” and “Basketball Wives”, I gotta’ say, I sure do miss it. And the show
Bill put alongside it, which was “A Different World” (1987-1993), had a
decidedly more realistic and somewhat more relatable edge—moreover, it actually
increased the amounts of young Black people attending universities, in real life. So, I
gotta’ say, even though some considered Bill a sell-out, when it came to these
shows, he definitely had a method to his madness.
Conversely, what bothered me about Bill,
was all the moralizing and finger-waving speeches, he’d give when he was around
us, his people—but I’ll get back to that point, a little later in this post…
Now, earlier this month, Serena Williams was defending
her championship title at the US Open in New York City, against her competitor,
Naomi Osaka. During that game’s second set, Serena was given a code violation,
cause her coach was seen on the sidelines, giving her coaching hand
signals—which he admitted to. But Serena was upset by the violation, and said her
coach was just giving her a “thumbs up”, and demanded an apology from the Chair
Umpire, Carlos Ramos (Remember, we don’t have any friends in these people
either. And regarding this, you should read my post, “Why Spanish people hate
Black americans”, and I’ll leave a link for that editorial, at the end of this
one). Serena then received a second violation for breaking her racket on the
court, and that resulted in a point being taken away from her. A third
violation came behind her verbal abuse of the umpire, after which, she was hit with a
game penalty, and lost the match. She then said, the reason she was treated more harshly
by the umpire, is ‘cause she’s a woman (more on that later).
Now, unless you’ve been living under a
rock, I think you’re already aware of the various rape and sexual misconduct charges that Bill Cosby’s been accused of—mind you, the majority of these cases
brought against him, most of them from white women, have passed their statute
of limitations—cause they happened 30 plus years ago. Nevertheless, Bill
attorneys did such a good job defending him in the federal and state court
systems, that these good, morally upstanding, white women, figured they’d have
a better chance convicting “Cos” in Civil court.
And they were right—cause on the 28th,
of this month, “Cos” was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison. Mind you,
he wasn’t convicted of the original charges brought against him, like: drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, or sexual misconduct—what he was convicted of, is 3 counts of “aggravated indecent assault”.
Now, I have to ask this question: have you ever heard of a
more ridiculous charge?
But, let me say straight off fam, that I
have no empathy or sympathy for what Serena and Bill are going through. Why, you
ask? Well, that’ll bring us to what these two “DON’T” have in common
wit’ white feminists or the white “queer” community…
And they are...
#1. Just cause you’re a Black person wit’
money, don’t mean you’re a full-fledged member of the “caucasian club”.
Now, more than anything else, this is
what Serena and Bill forgot. Mind you, while Bill was giving all those
finger-waving and moralizing lectures to Black folk, and Serena was marrying
the great white hope, they thought somehow, they were exempted from the
travails that us common Black folk face.
So, when they got that “wake-up call” recently, that shroud of white acceptance was stripped off, and they stood
there embarrassed (in-bare-ass) and perplexed at the fact that they were no
longer america’s sweethearts—and shocked to find out, they never were.
#2. Unlike the queer/LGBTQ/homosexual
community, Black people don’t have a closet to jump into.
Over the course of the last couple of
years, I’ve come to see that Black people have been conditioned into accepting
the queer lifestyle, and some have gone as far as saying, that being gay is
just like being Black.
Welp, if for no other reason that the
one above, as a Black man or woman, you can never equate your struggle to
theirs—and behind this fact, queers should quit asking us to include them in our “Civil/Human Rights” struggles.
Now, understand what I’m not saying—I’m not saying that you
should hate a gay person for being gay, I’m saying that not only can’t you hide
your ethnicity like they can hide their sexuality, but their lifestyle
is unnatural to the point of being a “death-style”. And the mainstreaming of
homosexuality, especially to Black folk, has more to do with making sure we
don’t create more “pure-bred” Black children, who’ll have the most genetic
power to breed white folk out of existence.
#3. Understand, as a Black man or woman,
there’s not only a “double standard” working against you, there’s a “triple
standard”.
Meaning, in no way, shape, or form, will
you as a Black person be seen by the overwhelming majority of white people, as anything
but a threat. And let me break this down a bit further—even though tennis athletes like
John McEnroe were famous for their angry outbursts, which included throwing his
racket and actually cursing out umpires, he never lost a game behind it, like Serena
did (And I’ll show you a video of that to bring this point home).
And more erroneously, Serena said that the only reason she was put through this, is ‘cause she’s a woman—well, in regards to that, I got one question: where’s all the white feminist groups, and the #METOO movement’s spokeswomen, to speak up on her behalf?
I’ll tell you where they are, they’re organizing so they can make sure they vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election. Cause if you didn’t know, the biggest demographic supporting Trump in this country, was white women.
And more erroneously, Serena said that the only reason she was put through this, is ‘cause she’s a woman—well, in regards to that, I got one question: where’s all the white feminist groups, and the #METOO movement’s spokeswomen, to speak up on her behalf?
I’ll tell you where they are, they’re organizing so they can make sure they vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election. Cause if you didn’t know, the biggest demographic supporting Trump in this country, was white women.
And in regards to the “Cos”, notice that
Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey, white pedophile priests,
etc. aren’t going to jail—but he is. And that should say it all, y’all.
So, to the legions of Black “Swirlers”
out there, understand, that in your liberal circle of white friends, they might
see you as their equal, but when a white cop pulls your Black ass over, know
that all that “special” treatment’s gonna’ go out the window—and don’t take my word for
it, just ask Henry Louis Gates Jr.
And to break it down even further, the moral of Serena and Bill’s story is: Black man and woman—DON’T FORGET WHO YOU ARE! Cause once you do, whitey will be more than happy to remind you of your place in his social order.
And like Sam L. Jackson said in Spike Lee’s
movie, “Do the Right Thing”: “That’s the double truth, Ruth.”
Later…
—MontUHURU Mimia
P.S.
Here’s a vid clip of the tennis star John
Mcenroe not only throwing down his racket, but literally cursing out an umpire—notice he doesn’t lose the game behind his actions.
P.P.S.
Here’s Bill Cosby’s infamous “pound cake”
speech, where he’s admonishing Black folks for their moral obtuseness. Well fam, always remember what they say about people in glass houses…
P.P.P.S.
If you wanna’ read my blog post titled, “Why
Spanish people don’t like Black americans”, you can do that HERE.