To white leftists everywhere who insist on treating black people as your experimental pet project to help yourself feel good, STOP IT! You are doing black people no favors with your insistence that they always need you to be their champion coming to their defense. This is particularly unhelpful when you turn every issue that black people face into a race war.  Find some other way to deal with your white guilt, apart from riding on the backs of black people. Your soft bigotry of low expectations is a major reason that too many black people continue to portray themselves as victims. In the last few days you did it again with another high profile black American. 

Serena Williams is a talented, athletic, competitive, fierce, successful tennis player who has changed the game in ways that few ever believed she could do. The story of she and her sister is a feel good American story that is an inspiration to many. She has parlayed her success on the court into success in the world of business where she has a popular fashion line. She has influence and name recognition that only few ever achieve, but in the wake of her meltdown at last week’s U.S. women’s open final, Serena Williams became another victim. Everyone was rooting for her to win the title, but for some reason the pressure got to her, and she could not muster enough of her game to get the job done. What happened to her was not the umpire’s fault. The man was simply enforcing the rules. Serena’s coach was giving in-game coaching, against the rules, and she was penalized for it. She should be angry at her coach, not the umpire. In addition she acted like a complete jerk towards the umpire. She is the John McEnro of the women’s circuit. 

People like Serena Williams are super competitive and it is one of the reasons why they are so successful, but  they sometimes allow that competitive drive to get the best of them. That is what happened in this case and she should own up to it. She acted like a petulant child and she was disrespectful and abusive to the umpire. She berated him by calling him a liar and a thief, and she took away from what should have been a moment in the sun for the young upstart who got the better of her that day. One would figure that by the time the match was over, and the raw emotions of the moment had dissipated, that she would show some humility and be a little more gracious. No such luck, instead she took time to turn the incident into a so called women’s rights issue. She immediately went from tennis player to champion of the down trodden. She continued the tirade that she started on the court, refusing to accept any responsibility for her actions and blaming everything that happened to her on the court on sexism. She claimed to be fighting for “women’s rights” even though her coach admitted after the match that he was coaching her during the game. He said that “all coaches did it” to lend credence to Williams’ claim that she is a victim. Solid argument, right? 

This umpire is known as a stickler for the rules, and maybe he could have been a bit more incremental in his response, but in the end it was Williams  and her coach’s fault for the penalty she received. Playing the victim after the match was an even more pathetic display. She may think that it makes her look strong for standing up to “the man,” and in the eyes of social justice warriors everywhere she probably did. Many others would say that type of reaction makes her look weak. Whining and playing the victim is not a sign of strength.  By claiming sexism, she is also attacking the character of a man who was guilty of nothing more than doing his job. She played just the sexism card, but white leftists with their guilt complex, who  have to show that they are woke, and feel that they always have to hold black people to a lower standard, jumped in the fray to declare that it was not only sexism, but racism in play.

Mika Brzezinski criticized Williams for her behavior and she was taken to task in the twittersphere because of course, to many, Mika was showing racial animus toward the black woman who is incabable of withstanding some criticism. It always comes down to race with these people. It is as though nothing ever happens to a black person for any other reason but racism. An Australian newspaper did a couple caricatures of Williams and the defenders of black people everywhere came out in disgust to protest the “blatant racism” of the cartoonist, because, in their eyes; the cartoon played to stereotypes of black people. The National Association of Black Journalists called the cartoon “repugnant on many levels.” No it was making fun of her for acting the way she did, that’s it. She is not exempt because she is black or female. Serana Williams is a great American athlete. There are many other reason’s to admire her, but she’s been an awful sport before. That was one of those moments. She is a grown woman. There is absolutely no need to cuddle her because she is a woman or because she is black. She is no victim.