When I read these two lines, it immediately reminded me of Heart of Darkness. Rankine uses this chapter to show how Serena is mistreated because tennis is a "white sport." In the next line, Serena says that Asderaki, who made a correct call against Serena, was the same as the umpires who made bad calls against her in the past.
The mutual un-recognition in those two lines is crazy, especially because I'm comparing it to the racism and lack of understanding from a book published in 1899. I understand why Serena would be upset at calls in the middle of important tennis matches, especially when there is no question that they are incorrect. However, it is a set rule that you are not allowed to cheer during a point, so it also doesn't seem right for Serena to equate Asderaki's decision to those of previous umpires.
When you play tennis, you see that it is so much more aggressive and emotional than you would expect from a no-contact "country club" sport. Tennis brings out the raw emotion that Serena expressed, and no one should hold that against her. I don't know how this situation can be solved in the future of tennis, but being mad at correct calls is not the way to do it.
I totally agree that being mad at correct calls is not the way to fix Serena's problems. However, she has been slighted so many times that a lot of her anger you almost can't get mad at. I don't think that her anger should be highlighted as much as her being wronged many times.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kyle. While she is certainly not justified for getting angry at the right calls, I think Rankine's point was to show the toll all the bad calls throughout her career have taken on her.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really good example of how the problem may come from both sides of the black-white binary. Since whites have looked at blacks as a group and not as individuals, blacks are now suspect of racism even when it isn't present. It seems like a catch 22.
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