Serena Williams just wrote a powerful essay about race in America
Photo: Getty Images
To us, Serena Williams is an actual superhero. The star gets brutally honest about things that matter like body image and the wage-gap, and she’s also the definition of #stylegoals on and off the tennis court.
I found this online and I’m totally obsessed #superhero #strong
A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Aug 13, 2016 at 5:29am PDT
The star, who is often cited as one of the greatest living athletes in the world (which is true) isn’t afraid to speak her mind and it’s part of why we love her.
A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Sep 21, 2016 at 7:16am PDT
Now Serena Williams has written a powerful essay about race and it’s so important.
Taking to Facebook, Serena explained how she had asked her 18-year-old nephew to drive her to work as she needed to use her phone on the journey. While he was driving, however, she spotted a cop, and the thoughts she had were pretty profound.
“I quickly checked to see if he was obliging by the speed limit. Than I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend. All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds,” she wrote. “I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew. He’s so innocent. So were all ‘the others.‘”
Serena then went on to say that, while she doesn’t believe that every person is “bad’ she does think that all it takes is one person.
“It is just the ones that are ignorant, afraid, uneducated, and insensitive that is affecting millions and millions of lives,” she said.
A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Sep 18, 2016 at 1:58pm PDT
Continuing, she said that in 2016 she was fed up of having to worry about these sorts of things.
“Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives? But I realized we must stride on- for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go,” she said. “I than wondered than have I spoken up? I had to take a look at me. What about my nephews? What if I have a son and what about my daughters [sic]”
Ending her statement with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr., Serena said the following.
“As Dr. Martin Luther King said ” There comes a time when silence is betrayal”.
I
Won’t
Be
SilentSerena”
Today I asked my 18 year old nephew (to be clear he’s black) to drive me to my meetings so I can work on my phone…
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This isn’t the first time that Serena Williams has written about race and racism.
In 2015, the tennis pro wrote an essay for Time detailing her decision to return to the Indian Wells tournament 14 years after she and her sister had racist abuse hurled at them at the event.
Love sexy strong pictures. #selfmagazine
A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Aug 2, 2016 at 11:26am PDT
We love Serena for speaking out about this important issue. It’s heartbreaking that in 2016 people of color have to worry for their lives when they’re just driving to work. The fact that, as Serena says, it’s 2016 and these things are still an issue proves that something needs to change.
The post Serena Williams just wrote a powerful essay about race in America appeared first on HelloGiggles.
