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Cartoonist Slammed for “Racist & “Sexist” Drawing of Serena Williams at the U.S. Open

09 10 18'

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Cartoonist Mark Knight is catching a lot of heat for his cartoon rendering of Serena Williams, which was published in Monday’s (Sep. 10) edition of Australian tabloid The Herald Sun.

The drawing comes after an intense final at the U.S. Open in which the 36-year-old clashed with umpire Carlos Ramos, who accused her of breaking the rules by receiving instruction from her coach in the stand.

Knight’s cartoon shows an extremely exaggerated caricature of Williams, with enlarged lips and a much larger figure, stomping on her tennis racket with a pacifier near her feet, suggesting that her conduct at Sunday’s U.S. match was childish.

The image of the 23-time Grand Slam winner has been labeled “racist” and “sexist,” and has drawn anger from all sides of the internet, even compelling Nicki Minaj to give Knight the “C**ksucka Of The Day” award on her “Queen Radio” show.

The drawing also showed Ramos saying “Can you just let her win?” to Williams’ opponent Naomi Osaka, who Knight falsely depicted as a small white woman with straight blonde hair. FYI: Naomi Osaka is NOT a small white woman with straight blonde hair. She is of Haitian and Japanese heritage, which has been pointed out by many users on social media who are nowhere near here for this cartoon.

Nicki Minaj wasn’t the only celebrity to weigh in on the cartoon and call Mark Knight out for creating such a demeaning image to represent a black woman. Author J.K. Rowling also slammed Knight for his picture, calling out its racism and sexism, while ESPN commentator Jemele Hill said the drawing was “about as subtle as Fran Drescher’s voice.”

In an attempt to defend himself against accusations that he doesn’t hold male tennis players accountable for their outbursts during matches, Knight tweeted out another recent cartoon he’d drawn of male Australian player Nick Kyrgios.

“Here’s a cartoon I drew a few days before when Australian male tennis player Kyrgios at the US Open was behaving badly,” Knight tweeted, along with the cartoon. “Don’t bring gender into it when it’s all about behavior. I’ll accept your apology in writing.”

The argument over Williams’ passionate response to Ramos during the U.S. Open has centered on the question of whether Williams was treated differently because she’s a black woman.

After Knight posted his controversial image, Twitter users rushed to uncover several instances in which Ramos seemed to essentially give white tennis players (male and female) a slap on the wrist for the same exact behavior.

Following Williams’ controversial loss, she was fined $17,000 from her $1.85 million prize: money $4,000 for the coaching warning, $3,000 for breaking her racket and $10,000 for the “verbal abuse” she directed at Ramos, the United States Tennis Association said.

Cartoonist Slammed for “Racist & “Sexist” Drawing of Serena Williams at the U.S. Open is a post from: Gossip On This - Pop Culture, News, Videos & Humor

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