Karen Hunter Says Jelena Ostapenko Has “Stank” *In Her Name* – Fun with History & the US Open This Saturday Night OT

 

It's the Show!  

Venus Williams & Leylah Fernandez advance to Women’s Doubles Round of 16 

We're going to do a little history in order to put what's happened so far in context  - to catch everyone up who hasn't heard about it yet (bc the tennis press sure is asking everybody) - here is Norris Jay with the pop culture version

and here is Dr. Stacey P with the scholarly socio-psychopathological analysis, complete with charts, graphs, historical context, and  a cartoon

Serving Fragility: White Women in Tennis and the Pathology of Losing to Black Excellence

Jemele Hill - who had a conversation with Taylor six months ago about how USTA training access was once foreclosed to Taylor because of her weight (Patrick McEnroe's idea, and both Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King had to weigh in (npi) in order to overrule the decision)  - also had a full-on analysis

We'll have both those videos in comments

But here is both Karen Hunter's breakdown of the events along with Rodney giving it all historical context

and Karen also had some thoughts for all here in the states who, in her phrasing, "produce the culture for export" with what felt like pretty profound notes (I for one hope they're taken as offered for improvement in what is obviously a state-of-the-art global impact apparatus as opposed to people getting all up in their feelings for something that imo should've been settled in a "family conversation" long ago), to wit:

"How did the people who don't even live here get that idea as to how Black women - Black people - are represented in the first place?"

But we will close with Taylor - who is unseeded in singles in the tournament - playing lights out  against Mirra Andreeva, her next opponent after Ostapenko, who was seeded 5th in the tournament

and her joyful on-court post-match interview with Chris Eubanks

and maybe some songs