An Australian editorial cartoonist has come under fire for what many liberals are calling a “racist” cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams throwing a temper tantrum on the court.
Mark Knight’s cartoon, published on Monday by the Herald Sun newspaper, features a drawing of a rather hefty Serena Williams jumping up and down on her broken tennis racket like a child, in the midst of a temper tantrum. In the background a line judge is asking Williams’ opponent, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, if she could just let Williams win to end the tantrum.
The cartoon comes on the heels of William’s massive meltdown at the U.S. Open over last weekend, for which she was fined $17,000 for code violations:
But many slammed Knight for the cartoon calling it racist, the Jakarta Post reported.
Though he deleted his initial tweet flogging the cartoon, Knight is not backing down from the drawing calling criticism of his piece “crazy.”
“The cartoon about Serena is about her poor behavior on the day, not about race. The world has just gone crazy,” Knight said in a reply to the criticism published in Tuesday’s Sun.
Still, Knight has come under withering criticism over the cartoon with many calling the thick-lipped facial features a “mammy character” and “racist.”
Knight was attacked by celebs such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, rapper Nicki Minaj, comedian Kathy Griffin, basketball player Ben Simmons, and many more.
The left-wing magazine Slate, unsurprisingly stampeded to its blog to call Williams a racist:
But, the “racist” accusation was echoed by hundreds more:
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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