To Put More Blacks In Tennis Pipeline, Own The Pipeline

Angela Haynes, U.S. pro player

From The New York Times: "Richard Williams is one of the most intriguing figures in sports, and the story of how his daughters [Venus and Serena Williams] became the defining presence in women’s tennis continues to be the greatest story in contemporary American sports. Increasingly, the question has been raised: Why after all these years hasn’t another African-American tennis star been identified and developed? Tennis has had well-documented difficulties in establishing and maintaining an African-American presence in its championship pipeline. Critics point out that the cost of the journey is exorbitant. But Richard Williams said the problem went beyond money. 'You can only be good if you have a system behind you and not ahead of you, blocking you from getting there,' he said. 'Institutions that could help blacks refuse. I think they drive blacks away from tennis.'"

The article discusses the need for tennis academies that target African-American youth: "He said there would not be a significant black presence in tennis until African-Americans build and run their own tennis academies. His solution is self-sufficiency. His vision is to buy 100 acres in a centrally located area, perhaps Texas, and build a tennis academy that would also house a resort and a school. 'You have to establish your own,' Williams said, referring to a black tennis academy. 'If you can’t establish your own, this system has shown you that it is not going to accept you in their house. If I had black people who wanted to work with me and we independently could set up something, we could create black tennis players. Other than that it’ll never happen.'"

Scoville Jenkins, U.S. pro player

More: "The United States Tennis Association would probably disagree. It would point to the number of its programs aimed at increasing diversity. But the history speaks for itself: the championship gap between Althea Gibson’s last title in a major in 1958 and the Williams sisters is enormous, and there hasn’t been a male African-American Grand Slam champion since Arthur Ashe in 1975. Clearly there needs to be another model. African-Americans have been playing tennis since the last part of the 19th century, not long after the modern game originated. They had their own clubs and their own champions — Gibson most famously. These clubs were a response to a legacy of racism — African-Americans being denied access to exclusive clubs, tournaments and training. Today large numbers of affluent African-Americans belong to predominantly white country clubs, but the vast majority of African-Americans do not. Some families can afford to give their children the lessons, camps, clubs and tournaments necessary to travel on the tennis conveyor belt. But the vast majority cannot. But beyond money, Williams points out that the tennis environment — what he calls the system — has not been welcoming to African-Americans. He uses his experiences with his daughters as Exhibit A."

The New York Times article continues about blacks in the tennis world: "Perhaps, it was suggested, Williams suffered from being a pioneer, and the next black star will have an easier time. Williams doesn’t think so. The resistance is deeply rooted, he said. 'When they tried to pick on me and Venus and Serena, they weren’t picking at them, in all reality,' Williams said. 'They were picking at other blacks, saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen to you if you come here, so keep your butts away.’ They aren’t doing this to hurt us, they do it to discourage little black girls and black boys so they won’t take over tennis like they did football and basketball and baseball.' There is an abundance of talent throughout the United States just waiting to be developed. Their families may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in the process, but Richard Williams demonstrated that you don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars."

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