Alexis Ohanian Sr, 35, has broken his silence about his wife’s cartoon drawn by Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, saying it was both ‘misogynistic’ and ‘racist’ in a Twitter post.
He wrote: “I am truly perplexed to learn this editor of the Australian newspaper behind the blatantly racist and misogynistic cartoon of my wife is a ‘Male Champion of Change.’”
He added: “Is this supposed to be satire, too?”
Thousands of Twitter users showed their support for the couple.
One fan said: “You’re the best husband and dad anyone could ask for! She’ll come back and prove all of them wrong!!”
One wrote: “Lord help Serena to win 4 more GS (sic) to silent (sic(all the haters in Jesus name we her fans have been here before and still she rise do it again.”
But some netizens were not so quick to forget the main reason the cartoon was published in the first place.
One Twitter user said: “Sorry Serena acted terrible. The umpires take a lot of crap from male and female multi millionaire players. Serena ruined Naomi’s day.”
Another asked: “But you are not perplexed with her behavior last Saturday?”
A third wrote: “Stop crying! Your wife acted like a two-year-old throwing her toys out of her crib while she was getting her b*** beat down by a 20-year-old … her behavior was disgusting to watch. I asked my daughter learn from it.”
Herald Sun editor Damon Johnson defended Mr. Knight and the cartoon. “A champion tennis player had a mega tantrum on the world stage, and Mark’s cartoon depicted that. It had nothing to do with gender or race,” he said.
Since the most recent US Open women’s final, some players have spoken publicly and shown their support behind umpire Carlos Ramos after Williams called him a ‘liar’ and a ‘thief.’
World number 25 Barbora Strycova said Williams explosion was ‘bulls***.’ She said: “In comparison, I never saw (Rafael) Nadal shouting like that with an umpire.
“Ramos is tough, one of the best umpires in the world, he did what he had to do in that match, because she overstepped the limit. Did she have to behave differently only because she was Serena Williams? I find it interesting that she did it only when she was losing.”
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