Serena Williams recently opened up on being treated differently as a professional athlete for her skin colour.
The tennis player, who recently featured on the cover of the British Vogue‘s November issue, spoke to the publication on a range of topics, from Black Lives Matter movement, body positivity, to female empowerment. She talked about how she loved “being the voice the millions of people don’t have” when showing “women and people of colour that we have a voice”.
Talking about the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, Serena was quoted as saying, “I had so many people who were white writing to me saying, ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to go through’… think for a minute they started – not to understand because I don’t think you can understand – but they started to see. I was like: well, you didn’t see any of this before? I’ve been talking about this my whole career. It’s been one thing after another.”
Serena went on to talk about how she was “underpaid, undervalued” as a black woman. “I’ve never been a person that has been like, ‘I want to be a different colour’ or ‘I want my skin tone to be lighter.’ I like who I am, I like how I look, and I love representing the beautiful dark women out there. For me, it’s perfect. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” she added.
As a youngster, Serena said she did not take to realise that her body type was not adequately represented in the media. But that did not stop her from being appreciative of all that her body helped her achieve.
“How amazing that my body has been able to give me the career that I’ve had, and I’m really thankful for it. I only wish I had been thankful sooner,” she was further quoted as saying.
As a woman of colour, Serena stressed how she felt responsible for providing a voice to marginalised people. “And maybe it doesn’t get better in time for me, but someone in my position can show women and people of colour that we have a voice, because lord knows I use mine…I love sticking up for people and supporting women,” she expressed.
Article credit: The Indian Express
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