7/17/00 11:15 a.m.
My Evening with the Williams Sisters
Nightline's race lines.

Carol Iannone writes on literature and culture.

he recent Wimbledon tennis matches were notable for the amazing fact that two sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, were both competing and even played against each other in the semifinals on the way towards Venus winning the championship. When I saw that Ted Koppel's Nightline was going to have a show on the sisters, with commentary from several sports experts, I was eager to hear all about this twin phenomenon.

For some reason, however, the main focus of the program was that the sisters were "arrogant and in-your-face and don't apologize to anyone for being black." I was a little surprised at this and I was curious to know who had asked them for an apology along these lines. I was not to get an answer, however, because the panel stayed with the subject of the sisters' being arrogant and in-your-face, although they immediately followed up by adding that the sisters are apparently also courteous and polite. I wondered how both could be true, but this question also was not answered. Instead, I learned that the sisters are arrogant and in-your-face but that that is good because they're black, and the only reason anyone is drawing attention to it is that they are black, whereas John McEnroe and other arrogant tennis players never had any attention called to them because of their "white skin privilege." Funny, I thought that I remembered that McEnroe had been criticized a lot for his temper tantrums on the tennis court, but I realized I must have been wrong because he couldn't have been criticized due to the white skin privilege I'd forgotten about. But the Williams sisters are always being asked to apologize for their arrogance just because they are black, but they refuse to do so. Again, I wanted to know who had asked for this apology, and also it seemed that the Koppel show was itself drawing quite a bit of attention to the sisters' being black but I realized that was my fault because I'm too concerned with their being black and had forgotten John McEnroe.

And besides, there's all the sisters have had to deal with in a white society. So it's good that they are arrogant and in-your-face because it shows that black people, especially black women, are not submissive any more and have really arrived. I know, you might have thought that it really isn't good for anyone, black or white, male or female, to be arrogant and prideful and brusque, but don't forget that they are also courteous and polite and why should we single them out anyway. Just because they are black? Why can't they just be like everyone else, and arrogant like other arrogant people regardless of color? But then it seemed that the whole show was highlighting the fact that they were black but that's the fault of white racist society always harping on blacks.

Also, I thought I remembered that we always revered Arthur Ashe, a true gentleman and a great tennis player, but suddenly in the discussion he almost began to appear like Uncle Remus, and it seemed that the only reason we revered him is that he was a sort of an Uncle Tom type who didn't have the guts to be arrogant and in-your-face like the sisters. I even began to wonder if he had ever apologized. But it turned out that it's only white racism that makes you think that blacks cannot be true gentlemen and have to be arrogant and in-your-face all the time. And the sisters are also courteous and polite too, aside from the times when they are arrogant.

But the whole show seemed to spend so much time on the sisters being black, even though I realized that was my fault for focusing on black people all the time and expecting them to apologize, and at the same time the show kept asking us why are we making such a big deal of their being black, except to be amazed that they are black, and to be impressed that they don't apologize for it, but not to feel that there is anything wrong with that because whites can be arrogant and in-your-face too, and we don't make any big thing of that. Anyway, because of all this I never really found out the answer to the amazing question, how two sisters got to the very top levels of tennis, which seemed much more extraordinary than being black. The sisters' father was due to come on after the break, and maybe he would have supplied some clues, but at that point I felt bad that I had been focusing so much on the sisters' being black and I sort of felt that I should get away from so much thinking by race, and unfortunately that required turning off the television. Good night, Ted.