StereoBros

In the past week the world saw two key public match ups: Serena Williams vs. Naomi Osaka for the US Open Women’s Title, and Nicki Minaj and Cardi B for reasons unclear.  People like Kelly Rowland have spoken out on the issue and said that the bigger fight is for women’s rights to equality.  The rumor/gossip tabloids made the Nicki/Cardi fight out to be headline news in the hiphop arena.  The same arena where only one female MC is allowed to be on top of her craft.  The same arena where beef and chaos is a must for some, but a drain for others.  Nicki Minaj said she felt humiliated because she was involved in such an incident among “upper echelon” people.  Not sure what that means, but let that marinate for a second.   I’d like to offer a public cry for attention.  Not for me, but for the real issues in our culture and space.

Serena Williams was in a good match with Naomi O., when was warned of sideline coaching by the chair umpire/judge.  She took offense to his warning, and it set off a series of events where she broke her racquet, voiced her opinion towards him and was eventually penalized a point then a game before losing to Naomi O.  Afterwards, she was visibly upset yet gracious, and implored the fans to cheer for Naomi and celebrate her feat.  The feat of a 20 year old Haitian-Japanese star in the making facing and beating a woman she greatly admires.  Some of your favorite “news” outlets painted Serena as a sambo, others as an emotional wreck who had a meltdown.  These same outlets seem to have forgotten that male tennis stars frequently curse each other, judges, and anyone else who seemingly wrong them.  They are seen as brave or fierce competitors, not emotional wrecks.  Why treat Serena any differently?

It may be race, it may be gender, or it may be a combo of both.  We could argue the obvious, but in a sport like women’s tennis I would bet that most young fans love Serena, Sloane, Naomi, Venus and what they represent.  The good sister Althea Gibson did not put all this work in for us to get distracted by an alleged shoe throwing incident.  We should not and cannot allow ourselves to get that bogged down by hiphop dramedy (drama + comedy).  Its not okay that news outlets debated everything wrong with Serena and continually treat our stars as second class citizens.  Whether you’re a barb or a Cardi B fan (not sure if there is an exclusive title for em), you should want more for your favorite celeb than them serving as the fuel for click baity articles mocking their talent and confirming the negative aspects of our culture.  Moral of the story: the more we get stuck debating frivolous beef, the less time spent on issues that actually matter in our daily lives.  I make no judgements if you care about rapper beef, I just ask that you care about real life issues just as much if not more…

althea gibson, cardi b, featured, hiphop, naomi osaka, nicki minaj, serena, tennis, us open

By K B

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