Richard Williams Calls Tennis Racist—Again

As the father of Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams has been given a lot of attention by the media for the last decade. And every time the spotlight turns his way, he makes waves. He’s claimed his daughters are the targets of racially motivated taunts in locker rooms and stadiums all around the women’s tour, he’s pulled his daughters from commitments and faced lawsuits and, generally, made sure that there was always as much attention paid to him as his kids.

So, it should come as no surprise that his interview with a newspaper in India features plenty of things that will make your eyebrow raise. He blamed the media for Venus and Serena never experiencing Grand Slam success at the same time and then moved on to discuss racism in tennis.

“Tennis is a prejudice game. Well, I’m Black and I’m prejudiced, very prejudiced. I’ll be always prejudiced as the White man. The White man hated me all my life and I hate him. That’s no secret. I’m not even an American, it just so happens that I was born in America. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don’t think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be. But if you get some little White no good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert who cannot hit the ball, they will claim this is great.”

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