U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens (2017) is in Paris playing the French Open, and following her first-round match, where she upset the #16 seed Karolina Pliskova, Stephens was asked about racist behavior directed at Black athletes.
“Yes, it’s obviously been a problem my entire career,” said Stephens. “It has never stopped. If anything, it’s only gotten worse.”
Another Day Another Racist Idiot
Stephens is the latest high-profile player to speak about racist abuse suffered. Earlier this month, Real Madrid football star VinÃcius Jr. reportedly suffered racial abuse from fans during a match and an investigation led to arrests.
Despite the false narrative from many that we’ve evolved to a post-racial society, racism remains permeates everyday life in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. With everyone connected via social media, there are more ways to spew vile and toxic hatred. Even with the existence of advanced software designed to help athletes block hateful, racist messages, the root cause isn’t being addressed.
“I did hear about the software. I have not used it,” Stephens said. “I have a lot of obviously key words banned on Instagram and all of these things, but that doesn’t stop someone from just typing in an asterisk or typing it in a different way, which obviously software most of the time doesn’t catch.”
There are so many people with malice and hate in their hearts and race is often the catalyst for whatever reason. We’ve “othered” and separated people based on phenotypical differences since the beginning of time and the dangerous, insidious lies that circulate as reasons to support racism are so woven into life as a human on Earth, it’s hard to see another way.
Public Figures Are Easy Targets
Unfortunately, highly visible Black athletes are targets for public attacks, particularly on social media.
“I mean, obviously when there is FBI investigations going on with what people are saying to you online, it’s very serious,” said Stephens. “Obviously it’s been something that I have dealt with my whole career. I think that, like I said, it’s only continued to get worse, and people online have the free rein to say and do whatever they want behind fake pages, which is obviously very troublesome. It’s something I have had to deal with my whole career and something I will continue to deal with, I’m sure. That’s that.”
There have been specific incidents that have happened to Stephens in the past, but in her press availability she did not elaborate on any specific incidents.
There’s a certain sadness in Stephens being resigned to the fact that this is just how it’s going to be. Part of being a public figure is expecting public ridicule, and it’s probably easier for some to handle that.
But when attacks are personal and racist that is something entirely different.
Hate crimes have been on the rise in the United States over the last few years, according to the FBI. And the internet has rapidly become a place where hate crimes can begin and even be carried out.
