It's A Two-way Street

It's time someone addresses it. Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena, recently opened up and let another bizarre racial rant fly out of his mouth. No stranger to such diatribes, it's time that someone just steps up and states the obvious....this man is a racist.

Not a big shock you say? Follow the Don Imus controversy last year and it is easy to see that white against black racism is no longer tolerated. Does it still happen? Of course it does. Do the civil leaders like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton tolerate it? No way. These guys went after the Imus Show team until they were fired from their jobs and were proud of what they accomplished.

In case you missed this event, (and thanks to a pandering national press you probably will be able to) Williams was bemoaning the plight of his incredibly successful daughters in the tennis world by saying, "Well, I’m black and I’m prejudiced, very prejudiced. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don’t think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be.” Following that comment he said, "But if you get some little white no-good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert, who cannot hit the ball, they (the media) will claim this is great.”

Is he a racist? Don't take anyone else's word for it; he is the one that says he's black and prejudiced. There's no room to dance out of this remark any more than Isaiah Thomas' explanation that he was ok with black men calling black women the "b-word" but that he wouldn't stand idly by while a white man did it? Anyone see Sharpton's reaction to that? He threatened a boycott against the Knicks, but accepted Thomas' justification of the comments. No screaming for him to be fired or held in public scorn. Will it be any different with Richard Williams? Of course not.

Is there still racism against the black community? Absolutely. Two of my dearest friends in the world are black and I know they experience it. As a white man, have I experienced racism? Yes I have. I now live in a country where I represent about 5% (or less) of the population and I have experienced my share racial slurs, racial profiling by the police and discrimination.

The truth of racism is that it exists everywhere on earth. This is a part of the human condition. How we deal with it is the key. If we no longer accept it against one group, doesn't that standard exist for all groups? Shouldn't the Al Sharpton's of the world be just as outraged when a black person spouts racism against a white person?

One thing to ponder. The NAACP is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In the scientific sense, neither white nor black is a color...shouldn’t this organization be concerned with the advancement of ALL people? Racism is a horrible condition whether it comes from the white lips of Don Imus or the black lips of Richard Williams. It's time for everyone to confront this problem as the two-way street that it is.