Straight outta Compton:
Yes, that's right, two of the most well known and highly prosperous tennis players in the world are from the poor slums of California. How do they do this you ask?
The fact that the family had relocated to Compton was no accident. With its high rate of gang activity, Richard Williams, their father, wanted to expose his daughters to the ugly possibilities of life being, "if they did not work hard and get an education." In this setting, on courts that were filled with potholes and sometimes missing nets, Serena and Venus practiced the game of tennis and the requirements for persevering in a tough climate. They didn't know at the time that they would grow up to be some of the great African American role models and athletes of all time. Not only did they achieve great feats of showing the world that it doesn't matter if you are a female or a African American, if you want something; you go get it.
This story unfolded more in 2009 when Serena and Venus purchased shares of the Miami Dolphins to become the first African-American women to own part of an NFL team. Looking at this time, I think that it is important to note how much of an impact and opportunity she is showing as an African American athlete because a women like Althea Gibson might not have ever been able to achieve the same feats because of the time period she lived in. This goes to show how racial barriers were being broke down more and more in sports as years passed and these two were the ones to help take part in doing so.
One of the biggest instances that I found to prove my point on this topic was to look at an episode of unusual behavior that Serena took part in back in 2009. Williams downplayed what happened about how she'd threatened the woman lines person during the match. But the incident did not go over well with the tennis viewing public, nor the U.S. Tennis Association, which fined her $10,000 on the spot. Two months later, she was placed on two-year probation and ordered to pay another $82,500 to the Grand Slam committee for the episode, the largest punishment ever against a tennis player. This got me thinking about questions such as, would a white, professional tennis player had to of dealt with the same consequences or would they have let her easier? This brings me to wonder also, "Is this how tennis came to be said as a rich, white person's sport?". This led to my next portion of research which deals with white athletes in the professional world of tennis and how they are treated, equally or different. I think this question is very important to ask because it sheds light on the white athletes side of things as well. This is important to look at because in order to get a true answer to these questions, we need to know from both sides. Also, I think these questions are good to focus my research on because a lot of audiences can be reached with this. Not only am I talking about African American professional athletes, but also white athletes as a whole. Also , these questions can be addressed to both genders as well, so I now have the gender topic covered as well. I think this is important to ask because I feel this is a common misconception that has always lingered for an answer, so now I am going to go find one.
Their power and athletic ability overwhelmed opponents, and their sense of style and presence made them celebrities on and off the court.With their famous style and play, Venus and Serena changed the look of their sport as well the look of other professional sports for African America athletes.
When doing this research, I thought if this website was trustworthy enough to use. After looking at it more in depth, I realized that it is. This is because there are other famous athletes and celebrities found on this website as well, so I know that they want to let researchers really know about these people correctly. The biggest part that I realized that made me trust this website was at the bottom of this page, all of the citation info needed was given. This showed a lot about the author because I knew then he wanted to audience of this website to know that he wasn't just making this stuff up. This was useful for the purpose of my project as well because I was able to use the info I needed bout Serena and knew that it was valuable enough to put in this blog.
Additional info can be found at:http://www.biography.com/people/serena-williams-9532901#personal-life
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