Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
If tennis courts could talk, what a tale they’d tell. And if we cared to listen, we might hear echoes of the hostility Black players have been forced to endure for daring to claim space in a place where it was made abundantly clear that they were not welcome. Hostility from officials, from commentators/analysts, from journalists covering the sport, and from fellow players. I mean, I am old enough to remember when the “Swiss Miss” Martina Hingis and the American Lindsey Davenport (think I’ve forgotten that Miz Lindsey), and other white players reportedly had a pact that anyone could win, so long as it wasn’t the Williams Sisters. Yep, that really happened.
After suffering a loss at the finals of the French Open, Sabalenka dismissed the brilliance of the winner and had a bunch of excuses as to why she lost. In fact, she emphasized that she knew that had that other top white player played the Black winner, the white player would have won. So no, Coco deserved no credit for her win. That was not at all racist, we were told. Let’s extend grace to the poor, beleaguered player, we were told. Ok, then.
Fast forward to the US Open and Jelena Ostapenko. After losing to Taylor Townsend, the Latvian player ranked No. 26, aggressively wagged her finger in the winner’s face and told her that she had “no class” and “no education.” According to news report, Ostapenko repeated that charge three times! Dem be fighting words in any culture. But given the history of tennis and its lack of welcome for Black players, that is tapping into the mother lode of racist sh*t. That direct frontal assault was echoing the old narrative of Black players not belonging on the same hallowed courts with white players. In so many words, Ostapenko with all of her education and stuff, was telling Townsend that she was uncivilized and undeserving of the space she occupied. It’s important to note that Taylor Townsend is not a nobody. She may be ranked No. 139 in singles, but she’s World No.1 in doubles. She’s earned her place on that court and in the history books.
Of course, racists were quick to jump to social media to let us all know that Ostapenko words had nothing at all to do with race/racism. Some went further still, attacking Taylor (one of 25 mothers currently on the WTA tour) of not really being a woman. That particular insult has been weaponized against Black women athletes, but never at their white counterparts. Not at Sabalenka with her raw, aggressive power game, and never at the plodding aforementioned Davenport. But yes, at the Williams Sisters and now at Townsend. Totally not racist.
What is true is that in the past 4 months, all the major breakdowns on the women’s side of the tour have been of white players losing to Black players. See Sabalenka losing to Coco, Danielle Collins losing to this same Taylor Townsend, and now Ostapenko after losing to Townsend. These Black players have gotten the memo but have clearly refused to heed its directives and that makes these white women maad.
“I’m very strong,” she said. “I’m very proud as a Black woman being out here representing myself and representing us and our culture. I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time that I step on the court and even off the court.”
On so many levels, the struggle continues. But so do the triumphs. Kudos to Taylor Townsend who handled the ugliness with the grace and strength of the queen she is.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Veteran defense lawyers and law enforcement experts have been warning about the potential for overreach since the federal government muscled its way into policing decisions in the nation's capital nearly three weeks ago.
Inside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Monday, those tensions broke into open court.
A federal judge dismissed a weapons case against a man held in the D.C. jail for a week — concluding he was subject to an unlawful search.
"It is without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life," U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said from the bench. "I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search."
The judge said Torez Riley appeared to have been singled out because he is a Black man who carried a backpack that looked heavy.
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Week two of President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., reached a new level after he signed an executive order getting rid of cashless bail– a jail reform system in place since 1992. Critics say the order undermines decades of progress, and ultimately, Black and brown people will suffer the most.
The cashless bail system gives arrestees the chance to return home while they await trial — unlike cash bail, which requires a monetary payment before release. The Root spoke to an expert, who said the consequences of this unprecedented change will be brutal.
“You should never be locked up based on how much money you have,” Alexa Van Brunt, the director of the Illinois office the MacArthur Justice Center and the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic at Northwestern Law School, told The Root. She said D.C.’s cashless bail system acts as a lighthouse for other cities and states, like Illinois, which have followed in the District’s footsteps.
Cashless bail represents a new age of progress, according to Van Brunt. The president on the other hand called it a “disaster,” during a Monday (Aug. 25) press conference. He added, “It’s been a horrible thing for crime, especially violent crime.” But in truth, the statistics tell a different story.
“The data in jurisdictions that have gotten rid of cash bail shows that it doesn’t negatively impact safety,” Van Brunt contested. “In fact, crime rates in parts of Illinois have actually fallen since cash bill was eliminated,” she continued of her state.
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“I spent the last two years, more than two years, deeply involved with Trump’s campaign,” Wolff said. “One of the motifs that was pervasive in the campaign was Trump’s attitude toward Black women.”
In fact, according to Wolff, Trump insisted that Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Jan. 6 case presiding Judge Tanya Chutkin are all the same “fat Black women” out to get him.
“This had particular and special meaning: Black women were coming after him. And that shortly became, in his rendition of this, fat Black women,” Wolff said. “The personal animus here, the personal revulsion on Trump’s part, the personal fear… This was essentially on a daily basis. People around him would call me up and say, “Another fat Black woman.”
Of course, Wolff is just one man saying this about Trump, which isn’t proof, but should anyone be surprised if it were?
Trump routinely calls Black women who, again, are demonstrably more intelligent than he (Kamala Harris, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, etc.) “dumb” and “low IQ.” He has also called virtually every Black person who has opposed him “racist” without even bothering to cite a single instance of any of them expressing racism. Hell, Trump once claimed with zero evidence that Willis was a “young racist” who had an affair with a “gang member.”
Don’t get me wrong, Trump has childish insults for everyone who gets on his bad side (not that he has a good side), but he clearly reserves a certain brand of condemnation for Black women. His disdain and seething misogynoir couldn’t be more apparent.
He’s just a sad little white man, and strong, competent and capable Black women remind him of that.
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If you slept through most of your science classes as a kid, it might be because you never had anyone to explain all of those complex theories and principles like 10-year-old Sean Atitisgobe. The tween STEM enthusiast, known online as Sean the Science Kid, has been a member of Mensa since he was 4 years old and shares his love of all things science with a massive social media following, which includes over 1.5 million Instagram followers and nearly 12,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.
His easy-to-understand explanations and his infectious laugh are guaranteed to engage even the most reluctant science student. But if you think kids are the only ones who can learn from Atitsogbe’s posts, think again. Just check out this clip in which he breaks down how our immune systems work to fight off infections:
Back in 2024, Atitsgobe dropped some serious science on Jennifer Hudson during an appearance on her talk show when he blew her mind with an explanation of quantum mechanics and relativity that left her speechless:
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The wooden walls of the village hall in Charles Town, Jamaica, are adorned with a procession of shadowy figures: a tribute to the resistance struggle of the Maroons – African people who escaped enslavement and created their own free communities in remote and hilly parts of the island.
Set in the lush embrace of majestic Jamaican hills and mountains, the idyllic settlement is quiet, but for the crowing of unseen roosters. Maroon spiritual leader Gloria Simms, affectionately called Mama G, warmly greets neighbours as she walks towards the hall – hair wrapped, her colourful dress moving with the gentle breeze.
Simms, who was honoured with the chieftain title of Gaa’mang in Suriname, exudes a regal air as she sits among the rows of benches to tell the story of her Maroon ancestors.
It began on the plantations where people from across west Africa were taken in shackles after being kidnapped from their homes. Some had stood in markets, while plantation owners examined their bodies to determine their value. Some had felt the searing pain of the iron brand after purchase. And on the plantations they had witnessed and experienced unspeakable horrors that led them to conclude it was better to die seeking liberty than to live as a slave.
Centuries later, five main Maroon communities in Jamaica are still thriving: the Accompong, Charles Town, Moore Town, Scott’s Hall and Flagstaff Maroons. Each has at least a few hundred residents who follow the customs of their ancestors, such as forms of governance, medicinal approaches, music, and cleansing and religious rituals. Similar communities survive in other countries, including Suriname, Brazil and Colombia.
Maroon councils are said to be so effective in managing disputes that crime in their settlements is lower than in other parts of Jamaica. They also typically do not pay land tax, citing the terms of peace treaties signed with the British government in the late 1730s.
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An attempt to promote friendship between Japan and countries in Africa has transformed into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media reports suggested the scheme would lead to a “flood of immigrants”.
The controversy erupted after the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, said this month it had designated four Japanese cities as “Africa hometowns” for partner countries in Africa: Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania.
The program, announced at the end of an international conference on African development in Yokohama, will involve personnel exchanges and events to foster closer ties between the four regional Japanese cities – Imabari, Kisarazu, Sanjo and Nagai – and the African nations.
Media coverage in the four countries, and Japanese-language references to the articles, have been blamed for triggering an ugly backlash on social media in Japan, along with a wave of angry calls and emails to the Japanese cities’ offices.
Some critics appeared to believe that “hometown” status meant that people from the African countries would be given special permission to live and work in their Japanese partner cities.
“If immigrants come flooding in, who is going to take responsibility?” said one social media post.
One post on X claiming that Kisarazu was “seriously considering handing over the city to Africans” attracted 4.6m views.
The four cities have received thousands of complaints from confused residents. “Our team of 15 officials spent a whole day handling hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails from residents,” an official in Sanjo told Agence France-Presse.
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