By N Oji Mzilikazi
7 August 2016
Power respects power. Economic empowerment/economic success lends itself to accessing power.
Failure of a race, ethnicity or community to be empowered economically ensures they remain powerless, weak, marginalised, exploited, and the footstool of others.
Economics is at the heart of anti-Black racism…
By N Oji Mzilikazi
11 July 2015
I’ve been a die-hard tennis fan all my life, especially of the women’s game (WTA). Exposed thighs, heaving breasts and the imprint of nipples did it for me.
My favourites were never the big name stars/players like Tracy Austin, Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova, but those I deemed had that indefinable thing as well as heart, spirit, fight, even when weighted by a defective game. My all-time favourite was Amanda Coetzer — until Venus Williams and Serena Williams came on the scene.
No disrespect to the Black predecessors of Venus and Serena that played the WTA like Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil or the likes of Chanda Rubin and Mashona Washington that were WTA classmates at one point in time, but with Venus and Serena, I finally had Black players with mad skills, never before seen power, killer instincts, self-belief, pride of self and unashamed blackness — to root for.
As someone weaned on songs of liberation, racial elevation, contributing positively to the commonwealth of blackness and challenging racism, I take names of the tennis pundits, sports and/or tennis commentators, writers, and former or current tennis players that have displayed racial bias towards Venus Williams and/or Serena Williams, take cheap shots, make animal/beast analogies, nasty jokes, vitriolic comments, cast aspersions and innuendos and/or said or wrote disparaging things about them or delivered unwarranted and unjust attacks on them as well as underhanded and backhanded comments. The list is long.
Chris Chase has a long history of anti-Williams bias, gladly pointing out any sins of omission or commission, and rejoicing when they lose. The sad man even decried Serena winning the 2009 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year Award. He chalked it up to “an epically bad slate of 2009 candidates.”
In Chase’s June 26, 2015, brew of “haterade,” he posited: Serena Williams won’t win Wimbledon.
Boastingly, he added that he made the prediction without looking at the draw. (Serena half of the draw contained the likes of Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova; all with the skills, talent and power to take down Serena.)
When Venus and Azarenka failed to vindicate his prediction, Chase decided to go for the long shot.
Maria Sharapova has a 16-match losing streak against Serena. Since nothing lasts forever, Maria is due for an eventual win. Believing nobody beats Maria Sharapova 17 times in a row, Chase predicted Maria Sharapova will stun Serena Williams in the semi-finals.
Serena won Wimbledon and Chase was left with egg all over his face.
