Get A Grip!

Okay.  While I'm being politically incorrect by not sympathizing with the hefty girls in my previous post, I'm going to get myself into hot water again.

This time it's accusing tennis player Caroline Wozniacki of being "racist" because she had some fun with her friend's, Serena Williams, ample physical attributes.

Please.  Even the men have fun with Serena yet no one has accused them of being racist. The two women are friends.  I cannot imagine Ms. Wozniacki even thinking of doing this if they weren't!  White or black! And impersonations are not an uncommon occurrence at exhibition matches of which this was one being played in Brazil.  Ms. Williams even got into the spirit of it by wondering if they made bikinis in Brazil that could accommodate her.

To some, though, because Ms. Williams is black, it must be racist. Feministing , a feminist blog staffed by young women who seem to feel very put upon had this to say,

"Given the history and current day context of racialized standards of beauty and the hypersexualization of people of color, when a white woman makes fun of a black woman's body, especially in a way that hypersexualizes her and draws on the stereotype of black women's big butts, it's racist."

Whoa there.  Give me some time to translate that into understandable English! I can't tell you how many times I've read through it and am still trying to make sense of it.  Who talks like that?  Or thinks like that?  Oh, yeah, why didn't they include her boobs?  Or is it only an issue of butts?

They went on to suggest Ms. Wozniacki read up on one Saartjie Baartman,  a South African woman who bore the characteristics of the Khosians, a major ethnic group in that region. She was duped into traveling to England then with another owner on to France where she was mercilessly exploited.  This was back in the 1700s!

Granted, this woman's story is grim and a good example of man's inhumanity to man.  However, I seriously doubt that any of the touring tennis pros ever heard of her.  Nor do I believe Ms. Wozniacki's spoof had anything to do with exploitation.  It was meant to be fun.  And it was funny.  The entire stadium was laughing.  Why some are bent on making an ugly issue out of anything that involves a person of color is a huge problem in this country and both blacks and whites do it.

I don't have the time nor the inclination to search for such references to try and humiliate anyone of the basis of race.  That, to me is far more racist, than what Ms. Wozniacki did.  Oh, by the way, I am white.  And I too have a rather ample posterior.  I suppose that makes me racist for having a part of my white body mock a person of color.  It makes about as much sense.