Throughout this week, Serena Williams has been promoting her latest project, Serena Ventures. Serena has been in the venture-capital game for years, because she saw an opening. That opening: the lack of start-up money and venture capital going to women of color. So that’s what Serena Ventures is all about, funding businesses founded by women of color, and/or businesses which serve diversity. Her inaugural fund has raised $111 million and she’s been promoting it all week, as I said. She’s been giving interviews to CNBC, Bloomberg and the New York Times. The New York Times’s piece landed on the front page of their Business section. When Serena looked at the print edition of the Times, she noticed something awful: the Times used a photo of her older sister Venus Williams in the article and identified Venus as “Serena.”
No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough. This is why I raised $111M for @serenaventures. To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked. You can do better, @nytimes. pic.twitter.com/hvfCl5WUoz
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) March 2, 2022
In case you can’t see that, I cropped the photo:
This is wrong. This is racist. Serena has every right to be upset. She’s truly going on CNBC to talk about how important it is to bring more diversity into the business world and the Business section of the PAPER OF RECORD just threw up a photo of Venus? Can we f–king not? A huge part of this is obviously racism, but there’s another part of it which is just sloppy editorial work. How many people double-checked this at the Times?
PS… Not only that, I’m offended by “Tennis Star” instead of her name in the headline too. Serena is famous enough to be identified by her g–damn name in a New York Times headline!!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Serena’s social media.
-
- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 14: American tennis players/sisters Serena Williams and Venus Williams arrive at the 2021 AFI Fest – Closing Night Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘King Richard’ held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on November 14, 2021 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 643221421, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
-
-
HOLLYWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 14: Serena Williams (L) and Venus Williams attend the 2021 AFI Fest Closing Night Premiere of Warner Bros. “King Richard” at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 14, 2021 in Hollywood, California.
;
‘,Image: 643370513, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: JFY1, Model Release: no, Pictured: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Credit line: Joe Sutter / Avalon
-
-
HOLLYWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 14: Serena Williams (L) and Venus Williams attend the 2021 AFI Fest Closing Night Premiere of Warner Bros. “King Richard” at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 14, 2021 in Hollywood, California.
;
‘,Image: 643370515, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: JFY1, Model Release: no, Pictured: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Credit line: Joe Sutter / Avalon
-
-
HOLLYWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 14: Tennis player Serena Williams attends the 2021 AFI Fest Closing Night Premiere of Warner Bros. “King Richard” at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 14, 2021 in Hollywood, California.
;
‘,Image: 643383531, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: JFY1, Model Release: no, Pictured: Serena Williams, Credit line: Joe Sutter / Avalon
