Serena Williams posts heartfelt message about police brutality and racism: ‘I won’t be silent’
By Will Stroude
Tennis legend Serena Williams has broken her silence on police brutality in a heartfelt Facebook post.
The sports star joins a growing list of black American artists and sportspeople who are using their platforms to highlight the inequalities and violence facing black people across America. Serena’s post comes as another unarmed black man, Alfred Olango was killed by police yesterday (September 27).
In the post, Serena, who with 23 grand slams titles is one greatest athletes of all time, told of her fear at seeing a police car on the side of the road while driving with her nephew, comparing the situation to Philando Castile, who was killed by police in front of his girlfriend and her young child after being stopped in his car. She wrote:
Today I asked my 18 year old nephew (to be clear he’s black) to drive me to my meetings so I can work on my phone #safteyfirst. In the distance I saw cop on the side of the road. I quickly checked to see if he was obliging by the speed limit. Than I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend. All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds. I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew. He’s so innocent. So were all “the others”
I am a total believer that not “everyone” is bad It is just the ones that are ignorant, afraid, uneducated, and insensitive that is affecting millions and millions of lives.
Why did I have to think about this in 2016? Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives? But I realized we must stride on- for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go.Why did I have to think about this in 2016? Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives? But I realized we must stride on – for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go.
I than wondered than have I spoken up? I had to take a look at me. What about my nephews? What if I have a son and what about my daughters?
As Dr. Martin Luther King said ” There comes a time when silence is betrayal”.
I
Won’t
Be
Silent
Williams has previously spoken about the pressures she faces as a black sportswoman in the very white world of tennis, and her Facebook post suggests that she will continue to use her huge influence to speak about the issues that matter to her.
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