Despite outrage, Australian newspaper defends Serena Williams cartoon

An Australian newspaper defended its cartoonist on Tuesday after publishing a caricature of Serena Williams having a temper tantrum at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

The cartoon has been condemned as racist by civil rights leaders, celebrities and fans.

Cartoonist Mark Knight’s image, published in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, showed an angry Williams with exaggerated lips and tongue.
She was also depicted as having a wild plume of curly hair rising from the top of her head as she stomped on her tennis racket.

“This despicable cartoon tried and failed to diminish the greatness & grace of @serenawilliams. Racism in any form is unacceptable,” civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson tweeted on Monday.

The cartoon was intended as a lampoon of the tennis star’s angry exchanges with chair umpire Carlos Ramos at the U.S. Women’s Singles final in New York on Saturday.

Williams clashed with Ramos over penalties she thought she did not deserve and ultimately lost to Naomi Osaka, a 20-year-old player born in Japan.

Knight’s portrayal of Osaka as blond and light-skinned also drew criticism for being racist.

The Herald Sun reported on Tuesday that Knight had been mentioned on Twitter nearly 74,000 times following the cartoon’s publication.