CAROLINE Wozniacki has come under fire for performing what is being labelled a “racist” impersonation of Serena Williams, but she is not the first tennis star to pull the prank.
Report by Adelaide Now Online
During an exhibition match against Maria Sharapova in Brazil, Wozniacki stuffed her chest and skirt with padding and pranced out onto the court, inciting laughter from the crowd.
While some members of the crowd lapped up the performance, others branded it a racist attack.
One blogger on Tumblr posted: “…this isn’t ‘harmless fun’ as one article described it. its racist. out and outright racism. mocking and making fun of the bodies of black women for a laugh? real funny, stupid white girl. real real funny.”
Another blogger said: “It may have been done in ‘jest,’ but I love how people can can turn a black woman’s body and sexuality into a caricature. However, we should not have the autonomy to celebrate any successes of our own.”
But Wozniacki is certainly not the first to stuff her clothing in a bid to resemble Williams’ voluptuous figure.
Both notorious impersonator Novak Djokovic and Williams’ fellow American Andy Roddick have pulled the stunt in the past, as you can see in the video above.
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Wozniacki said at a press conference later that she was poking fun at her friend and fellow tennis player, 15-time grand slam champion Serena Williams.
“I really love the crowd here, they’re open and they have a lot of fun,” Wozniaki, 22, told reporters.
The impersonation did not come across as innocent as she hoped, though, with an article on the website www.feministing.com, reading: “Given the history and current day context of racialised standards of beauty, and the hypersexualisation of people of colour, when a white woman makes fun of a black women’s body, especially in a way that hypersexualises her and draws on the stereotype of black women’s big butts, it’s racist.”
Wozniacki also did a similar impersonation of Williams last year while dancing to a Rihanna song.
A commenter on YouTube also posted about the incident, offering Woznaicki some advice: “Maybe if she imitated Serena’s actual tennis, she’d win a little more.”
Wozniacki is yet to win a grand slam title.
