Getty Cartoonist Mark Knight has received fury and calls of racism for his recent cartoon of Serena Williams, depicting her emotional response to a penalty during the U.S. Open.
Cartoonist Mark Knight has drawn serious flack for his cartoon rendering of Serena Williams, published on Monday for The Herald Sun, an Australian newspaper.
The cartoon has drawn anger from all sides of the internet, even compelling Nicki Minaj to dub Knight the “c*ck sucka of da day” on her radio show.
Here’s the cartoon, which depicts Williams in the wake of her controversial penalty during the final of the U.S. Open:
Though Knight has been quick to argue that he has depicted white male tennis players in a similar light, many have argued that he stepped over the line with this cartoon, which even falsely depicts Williams’ opponent to be a small white woman; Williams lost in the final to Naomi Osaka, a black woman.
Nicki Minaj isn’t the only celebrity to weigh in. Author J.K Rowling tweeted of the cartoon, “Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop.”
And here’s nick telling Ramos his umping is ‘fucking bullshit’ after being given a violation. No game penalty, no point penalty.
The argument over Williams’ emotional response to umpire Carlos Ramos during the U.S. Open has largely circulated around the question of whether Williams was treated differently due to her gender. In the wake of the tennis match, Twitter users were quick to unearth several occasions in which Ramos seemed to give male tennis players a slap on the wrist for the same exact behavior.
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