Professional athletes face several challenges, including the pressure to perform, the need to avoid injuries and juggling the demands of personal lives while being a public figure.
In addition, African American athletes – particularly women – have their own set of challenges and are subject to different treatment than their peers due to obstacles concerning race and sex.
“Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is defined as policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization that result in and support a continued unfair advantage and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race or ethnic group,” according to Wikipedia’s website.
These discriminatory practices contribute to the disadvantages people of color face in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare and education.
Aside from being embedded in societal systems and structures, institutional racism also plays a role in how people of color are represented in the media.
While competing in the 2021 French Open, Naomi Osaka, a professional tennis player, announced her withdrawal from the tournament after she declined to attend press conferences, citing mental health reasons for her decision.
“I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” said Osaka in an Instagram post made in May 2021, after her announcement that she’d be withdrawing from the tournament.
Not only was she fined for withdrawing from media obligations, but the French Open’s official Twitter account posted photos of four other players engaging in media duties during the tour with a caption that said: “They understood the assignment.”
The tweet appeared to be directed at Osaka but was later deleted, and she found herself being punished and was seemingly mocked by officials – a pattern in which Black women in elite sports are subject to harsh scrutiny.
Serena Williams is another prominent tennis player, who throughout her career has also faced criticism of her physicality in ways that players of other ethnicities never have.
At the 2018 French Open, Williams wore a black catsuit that was designed to help prevent recurring blood clots she developed after a difficult childbirth, which she dedicated to other mothers who had undergone pregnancy complications.
“I’ve had a lot of problems with my blood clots. God, I don’t know how many I’ve had in the past 12 months,” said Williams to reporters at the French Open. “I’ve been wearing pants in general a lot when I play, so I can keep the blood circulation going.”
The French Tennis Federation deemed her outfit unacceptable, and the organization’s former president, Bernard Giudicelli said a tennis player must “respect the game and the place,” declaring Williams’ catsuit wouldn’t be accepted at the Grand Slam.
Williams found herself accused of displaying disrespect toward the game, despite putting her physical health first, much like Osaka prioritizing her mental health.
“It’s almost comical how blatant it is,” said Gwen Berry, a track and field Olympian, in an August 2021 interview with CNN Sports. “When Serena, Naomi, or another athlete who happens to be a Black woman does anything that veers away from what’s expected in the top sports, they’re punished.”
At the 2021 US Olympic trials, while standing on the podium during a medal ceremony, Berry turned away from the flag as the National Anthem played and held up a T-shirt that read, “activist athlete.”
She received backlash from spectators and critics including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who called for the U.S. hammer thrower to be removed from the Olympic team.
“When you’re an athlete and you’re standing up for racial equality and for women’s rights the people at the top don’t want you to do anything other than perform for them,” said Berry in the CNN interview. Nonetheless, Black women in elite sports are no strangers to the penalization and marginalization brought down on them for doing things on their own terms.