Tennis Fans Wonder – What Could Possibly Be Stressful For a Half-Black Half-Asian Female Tennis Prodigy?
“Why can’t you be more like Serena Williams (who we also mistreated)?“
By: Victor Tran
July 18, 2021
Tennis star, Naomi Osaka, received public backlash after deciding to abstain from post-match press conferences, citing concerns over her own mental health. This outraged tennis fans, as they were deprived of the sport’s most cherished tradition – criticizing black women players.
“Mental health, sch-mental health”, declared middle-aged Arizona man, Chuck Davis. “She doesn’t understand how this sport works,” he said about the 23 year-old 4-time Grand Slam champion.
Self-proclaimed sports expert Davis, who lost the last of his unemployment earnings on DraftKings, asked “What could possibly be stressful for Naomi Osaka?” To answer that, one would need to travel way back in time, as far as the year 2020.
The Coronavirus pandemic put organized sports on pause for a majority of their respective seasons. The world struggled with health crises and job insecurity, and athletes were no exception. Athletes were left without their jobs or their income, not unlike Davis, who was fired after masturbating in his office’s bathroom.
In addition, Japanese-born Naomi Osaka now lives in the United States, a country experiencing a rise in attacks targeting Asian women. Imagine battling a pandemic, hate crimes, and Serena Williams all at once and being expected to do it all perfectly. Davis claims he could.
When tennis returned, it did so in the midst of racial injustice protests. Osaka was scrutinized for wearing masks that read, “Black Lives Matter”. Facebook Boomers held the young champion to an ironic double standard. Barbara Miller wrote in a comment, “We don’t need to hear your thoughts, just play the game!”
After Osaka’s decision to avoid the press during the French Open, Barbara Miller commented on the NPR post, “Well you can’t just play the game, you owe us your thoughts!”
Now, in more recent news as Osaka has chosen to play for her birth country, Japan, in the 2021 Olympics, instead of the US, the very same Barbara Miller left her outspoken criticism once again, “Why is she punishing the great US of A to go and play for Japan? What did we ever do to her?”
Still, questions are left to be answered. Questions like: Does Osaka have the right to feel stress? Does mental health really exist? Will people like Chuck Davis and Barbara Miller ever stop embarrassing themselves on the internet? The world may never know. In the meantime, those who are mixed race Black and Asian have a simple request, “Can we just exist?”
