By N Oji Mzilikazi
30 August 2015
Year: 2015
Wimbledon 2015: Racists Root For A Black Girl To Stop Serena
By N Oji Mzilikazi
12 July 2015
The default meter of greatness — for racists, is white. Consequently, the minute a Black athlete is a serious threat to a record held by a white person; racists get agitated and unleash their bias and hatred.
Hank Aaron received thousands of hate mail and death threats before and after breaking Babe Ruth’s baseball record: “You are (not) going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it,” one of them reads. “Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. My gun is watching your every black move.”
Tiger Woods has long made it known that his dream is to surpass Jack Nicklaus’ golfing record of 18 majors. And that has offended to no end. Woods has 14.
In an April 2009 article outlining why people don’t like Tiger Woods, Tim Dahlberg, AP Sports Columnist included the following: “He’s won enough” and “He scares people (his fellow players).”
In January 2008, Golf Channel lead anchor, Kelly Tilghman, suggested one way for young players to deal with the challenge posed by Woods would be to lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley.
Given that “lynching” and its symbol the noose was used to murder, intimidate, and terrorise African Americans for centuries, Tilghman’s invocation of the term speaks volumes.
Tiger Woods last major was seven years ago — the 2008 U.S. Open. Since then Woods has been subjected to a world of injury, personal troubles and marital woes of his own making, and horrible performances on the greens. Woods is now No. 241 in the world golf rankings.
For having the audacity arrogance to pursue Nicklaus, the haters rejoice in and relish every bad minute or moment in Woods life, as well as his every misstep. Even players that were of no consequence on the tour joined in the feeding frenzy.
Ernie Els slammed Tiger Woods for his presser addressing his car accident and marital infidelity.
Els said that Woods doing so on the Friday of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship “takes a lot away from the golf tournament.” Els called it “selfish.”
Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters ripped into Tiger Woods in his 2010 annual pre-Masters press conference. Payne’s opening speech about Woods was unprecedented.
For all of Woods womanizing and infidelity, if Woods had cheated on his wife with men — and come out as gay, he would’ve been soundly embraced by the media a la Caitlyn Jenner. Tiger’s infidelity was just a ruse for many to display envy and hate.
Serena Williams has repeatedly demonstrated she is a champion par excellence. Still, she has repeatedly been counted out of the game by those who ought to know better, as well as by the haters and those who don’t like her.
Pat Cash is a former world No 1, a winner of several Grand Slam titles, and a Tennis Hall of Famer. Cash knows his tennis. Cash is also not a fan of the Williams’ sisters.
While everyone is entitled to root for or against anyone, one would think the intelligent and those with access to a “bully pulpit” would refrain from casting aspersions, making innuendos against those they dislike or rile the illiterate. When it comes to Venus and Serena Williams, commentators and writers act as if they have a license to “pyss” on them.
In July 2000, Cash said the Wimbledon semi-final match between Serena Williams and Venus Williams was fixed by their father, Richard Williams.
So filled is Cash with anti-Williams bias, he does not recognize that alongside Serena’s prodigious talents, Serena owns mental strength and have unbending intent and indefatigable spirit.
Ignorantly, Cash declares in The Times, January 14, 2007: For all her talk, Serena Williams will never return to the top again. Serena was then the world’s 81st-ranked player.
Two weeks later Serena trashed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2 in the Australian Open final that lasted only 63 minutes.
In his apology, Cash unnecessarily stated: I was not alone. Tracy Austin, who knows more about women’s tennis than me, laughed at the suggestion that the former world No 1 had a legitimate shot at climbing back to the top.
Tracy Austin had predicted Serena will fall to top-seeded Sharapova in Aussie final. Austin stated with authority: “Sharapova is going to be a huge step up in class for Williams — too big a step in my opinion as I see the Russian taking the title.”
Within minutes of Serena defeating Sharapova, MSNBC pulled Austin’s article: Serena’s improbable run to end. Clearly, it was to protect Tracy Austin’s reputation. The Williams’ fans that inhabited ESPN Tennis Message board promptly fired off complaints to NBC.
A loss by Serena to Justine Henin at the 2007 U.S. Open, prompted Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post to state about Serena: Someday she may have to cope with the fact that real greatness isn’t hers, but rather, just a whisper of something she overheard through a door she never entered.
Jenkins has a history of anti-Williams, and I daresay anti-Black tirades (Barry Bonds).
Jenkins went out of her way to excuse Michael Phelps when caught smoking out of a bong in 2009, and when caught driving under the influence in 2004.
One of the things Jenkins stated in regards to Phelps was: Being a champion is frankly not the most healthful career to aspire to; it’s an abnormally stressful one. Yet, Jenkins had no qualms about crucifying Serena Williams for her U.S. Open outburst/manifestation of stress.
In the November 1, 2010, Bleacher Report, Anders Lammers emphatically made this declaration about Serena Williams: We’ll never see her as the No. 1 again.
Serena has been No. 1 for 124 weeks in a row, and is 6,671 points ahead of current World No.2 Maria Sharapova.
The list of Serena and Venus Williams detractors is long…
In winning the 2015 Australian Open and 2015 French Open, Serena Williams is two Grand Slams behind the great Steffi Graf, and halfway towards a Calendar slam; winning all four Grand Slams in a calendar year.
The last person to win the Calendar Slam was Steffi Graf — in 1988. And in winning the Olympics that year, Graf owns the Golden Slam.
Not only does winning Wimbledon 2015 bring Serena closer to Graf, but it gives Serena four consecutive Slams; the “Serena Slam” — for the second time in her career.
Given the Wimbledon draw, and Serena’s struggles at the French, even though she emerged victorious, fans that dislike Serena and fans that do not want her to reach and/or break Steffi Graf’s record dreamed, hoped and prayed for an upset along the way. That upset nearly took place in the third round.
Serena’s third-round match against England’s Heather Watson started off as a routine Williams’ win. The first set was over in 25 minutes and then — Watson won the second set playing inspirational tennis as well as the best tennis of her life. Centre Court was alive. The crowd now partisan was madly cheering for their home girl, rooting for her to send Serena packing, and some given to booing Serena.
Watson broke Williams to love to serve for the match. An upset was in the making… Watson was two points from victory — and just couldn’t get it done.
While Watson’s display of talent and skill in her match with Serena warrants the subsequent accolades, respect, and made Britain proud, the massive rooting did not all come from nationalistic pride. Some came from those who saw Watson as a foil to derail Serena’s ambitions; bring her one win from tying Steffi Graf.
Why do I make such a claim? Two days prior to the Serena encounter, Britain’s No. 1 female tennis player revealed in a post-match press conference that she has been a victim of social media abuse: I’ve had death threats. I’ve had people threatening to kill me and kill my family, wishing that I get cancer and die a slow, painful death.
What would prompt such haters to root for Heather Watson other than not wanting the most dominant athlete ever in the WTA eclipse their idol? Forget the “rooting for the underdog” canard. You would never hear fans and commentators rooting for the underdog to upset Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Raphael Nadal, or former players like Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi. Rooting for the underdog only comes into play when a Williams’ sister is on court.
Wimbledon 2015: Chris Chase Unrelenting Hatred of Serena Williams
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.
The Salvation Army: Pimping Blacks For $$$
By N Oji Mzilikazi
18 May 2015
The mass surveillance, information gathering and analysis of data that qualifies the internet tailor advertisements for users.
Since I dismiss those ads as price for the “free” service; reading an article or browsing a website, I don’t see them. It was a different story yesterday.
An article headline in a British newspaper website caught my attention. When I went to the page I was greeted with the following advertisement:
I was pyssed.
As per Statistics Canada 2006 Census, Canadians identified as Black constitute 2.5 % of the entire Canadian population. Still, the Salvation Army had no qualms about choosing a Black face to represent poverty, rather than someone from the majority population. Talk about exploiting a Black stereotype to secure donations.
Furthermore, according to any and all metrics that define poverty, First Nations/Aboriginal communities experience higher levels of poverty than everyone else.
As detailed in Poverty Trends Scorecard Canada 2012: “The rate of poverty among Aboriginal peoples living off-reserve was 15.2% in 2010, compared to 9.0% for all of Canada.14. In 2005, according to the Census, it was estimated the poverty rate for the entire Aboriginal population (i.e., both on and off-reserve) was 18.7% among Aboriginal families and 42.8% among unattached individuals.”
Pimping Blacks to raise funds for “white” institutions is nothing new.
The Montreal Gazette is a broadsheet format sized paper. Its Saturday November 16, 2002, paper featured a full-page advertisement soliciting donations for its Christmas Fund.
The photograph in the ad was that of a young Black kid with a football under his arm, with the following slogan: “Your donation is being kicked around.” Ergo poor Blacks are being helped.
Racism has it that all must believe that poverty and incarceration are the preserves of Blacks.
A December 2008 study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed: “Changes in social standing such as falling below the poverty line or going to jail made (white) people more likely to be perceived as black and less likely to be seen as white.”
Good Morning Vietnam! America’s Ill-Fated War of White Supremacy
By N Oji Mzilikazi
30 April 2015
Today marks the 40th anniversary of America’s disastrous incursion into Vietnam. And much like George W. Bush WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) based invasion of Iraq, it was a war predicated on lies (the fight against communism) by one U.S. president, and expanded to include other South Asian nations, by another.
On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam, forcing the American juggernaut; the world’s superpower to flee with her tail between her legs, ending a decade plus war with the North to unite Vietnam.
Vietnam was once the jewel of the French empire. There came a time when the Vietnamese were no longer accepting of French Imperialism and armed resistance was the order of the day.
When the French, bankrolled by America lost at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, American pride was hurt. America was more than willing to step in and teach those “yellow bastards” a lesson.
The Geneva Accord of 1954 stated that Vietnam would remain separated for two years, and then reunite in a free election. Afraid that North Vietnam would win the 1956 elections, President Ngo Dihn Diem of South Vietnam, refused to allow South Vietnam to participate. North Vietnam then decided to remove Diem from office.
America was not a party to the Geneva Accord of 1954. Rather than let the Vietnamese work out their problems; view the desire of North Vietnam to reunite the country as being in the same spirit as that which sparked the American Civil War (Some Southern American states seceded from the union.), America transformed Vietnam’s war of unification as protecting the democracy of South Vietnam from communism of the North.
America had learnt nothing from their involvement in Korea, and the needless deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers.
In keeping with the American propaganda machinery telling that brave American soldiers were fighting in Korea for democracy and freedom, Americans at home were told it was the same with Vietnam.
More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than what was dropped in World War II. Mind you, World War II was spread over areas far and wide, while Vietnam was a fixed area.
Thanks to Agent Orange, Agent Purple, and Agent White, Vietnam has the largest dioxin contamination in the world.
America used those toxic chemicals to destroy the forests and deprive the Viet Cong from a place to hide and launch an attack. The severe and unparalleled bombardment of toxic chemicals resulted in residue diffused throughout Vietnam’s food chain.
Forty years later, children in Vietnam are still being born poisoned, blind, deformed, and handicapped because of those toxic chemicals, while the manufacturers of those poisons and their stockholders continue to enjoy the profits brought on by their usage.
Vietnam was a failed war of American aggression; a failed war of white supremacy.
Where Is Your Integrity Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr
By N Oji Mzilikazi
20 April 2015
As an issue of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and European colonialism; people whose roots and cultural DNA white people sought to deliberately excise, and to a great extent successfully did, I enjoy the PBS documentary, Finding Your Roots.
I marvel how researchers can pick up the broken paper trail of their subjects; delve deep into the crevices and recesses of the past and bring forth clearly astounding information. I get a kick out of their subjects’ reactions, especially when they recognize they have the same internal drive/predilections as one of their newly discovered ancestor.
Although I am glad for them, every time I watch Finding Your Roots, my mind is temporarily invaded by thoughts of the millions of people of African descent whose roots are permanently lost; broken in many places by historical forces over which they had no control.
Since descendants are not responsible for the actions of an ancestor, one would think that Finding Your Roots would be truthful and honest, even if the path to discovery reveals painful episodes in an ancestor’s past. That was not the case when Ben Affleck was a subject.
Viewers were told Affleck’s people participated in the American Revolution and the American Civil War, and that his mother was a Freedom Rider in the Civil Rights era. Ergo, Ben Affleck is from “righteous” stock. Not publicized was that one of Affleck’s ancestors owned slaves.
As revealed in Wikileaks posting of leaked Sony emails, Ben Affleck wanted the producers of Finding Your Roots to edit out details of how his ancestors were slave owners even though it was a breach of PBS editorial rules.
Interestingly, the careers of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were launched in School Ties (1992), a film about a student hiding his Jewishness to fit into prep school.
Rather than demonstrate testicular fortitude and say, “No, can do,” Henry Louis Gates Jr, the producer and host of Finding Your Roots reached out to Sony chief executive Michael Lynton for advice.
Lynton’s email to Gates reads: “I would take it out if no one knows.”
Gates is a professor at Harvard. Gates also makes his living from African American and race issues. He of all persons knows the deliberate historical vagueness that envelops slavery, and that peeling back the curtain — especially when not from a shaming perspective is good.
Gates of all persons knows there should be no equivocation in that regard. Yet, her suppressed the slave ownership in Ben Affleck’s ancestry.
What a betrayal by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr!