Serena Williams Says She’s ‘Underpaid’ & ‘Undervalued’ As A Black Female Tennis Star, Adds: I Like Who I Am & How I Look

October 5, 2020 by Demi Lobo in Latest News with 0 Comments

Serena Williams Says She’s ‘Underpaid’ & ‘Undervalued’ As A Black Female Tennis Star, Adds: I Like Who I Am & How I Look

Serena Williams has clearly made a name for herself in the world of tennis and beyond. But when she opened up about being a black woman in the sport, she said she feels she’s “underpaid” and “undervalued” compared to her male counterparts.

Still, she added that she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“But I’ve never been a person that has been like, ‘I want to be a different color’ or ‘I want my skin tone to be lighter.’ I like who I am, I like how I look, and I love representing the beautiful dark women out there. For me, it’s perfect. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

George Floyd

Following the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter protests began all over the nation. Serena Williams says,

“Now, we as Black people have a voice – and technology has been a huge part of that.”

She added:

“We see things that have been hidden for years; the things that we as people have to go through. This has been happening for years. People just couldn’t pull out their phones and video it before… At the end of May, I had so many people who were white writing to me saying, ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to go through.’ I think for a minute they started – not to understand, because I don’t think you can understand – but they started to see. I was like: well, you didn’t see any of this before? I’ve been talking about this my whole career. It’s been one thing after another.”

Serena Williams, who also said that “tennis is a small play in the whole scheme of things” opened up about her new investment firm, Serena Ventures. She said:

“I launched Serena Ventures with the mission of giving opportunities to founders across an array of industries.”

She continued and said she plans to help women of color to have a voice in becoming future CEOs.

In this society, women are not taught or expected to be that future leader or future CEO. The narrative has to change. And maybe it doesn’t get better in time for me, but someone in my position can show women and people of colour that we have a voice, because Lord knows I use mine. I love sticking up for people and supporting women. Being the voice that millions of people don’t have.”

While she’s a role model for many, Serena Williams went on to say that she and her husband Alex Ohanian’s daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. is her biggest inspiration.

She said the three-year-old has taught her:

“How amazing that my body has been able to give me the career that I’ve had, and I’m really thankful for it. I only wish I had been thankful sooner. It just all comes full circle when I look at my daughter.”

The tennis star adds that the representation of Black women is important and that her sister, fellow tennis star Venus Williams, looks more like is “acceptable.:

“When I was growing up, what was celebrated was different. Venus looked more like what is really acceptable: she has incredibly long legs, she’s really, really thin. I didn’t see people on TV that looked like me, who were thick. There wasn’t positive body image. It was a different age.”

Adding,