While much of the sport-loving world had their sights on last night’s historic, passionate US Open match between Serena and Venus Williams that showcased both sisters’ remarkable talent and moved the former into the US Open semi-finals, Forbes apparently wasn’t interested. During the match’s broadcast, the publication tweeted an article from late-August about fellow tennis star Maria Sharapova (who is, to be sure, white) being the "world’s most marketable" tennis star.
This could be interpreted as a small slight, a bad judgment call by the social media team. But many wondered aloud on social media as to why Forbes, instead of talking about two of tennis’ most publicly-visible women (one of whom—Serena—has beat Sharapova 17 times at Wimbeldon) who, coinidentally, are black and get tons of public backlash for their figures and playing styles, chose to share an old article about Sharapova.
As Tea & Breakfast documents, the Twitter-sphere was none too pleased at this omission. Check out a few of the most incisive tweets below:
…. @Forbes pic.twitter.com/UGkEQ6RpQf
— Lizzuendo (@Lizzs_Lockeroom) September 9, 2015
@clarencehilljr @Forbes Simple: to overshadow the fact that two BLACK females dominate women’s tennis.
— Professor Negro (@professornegro) September 9, 2015
Soooo #MariaSharapova has lost 17 consecutive times to #Serena but makes $10 million more in endorsements?? Hmmm wonder why that is…….
— Rashad (@RashadDrakeford) September 9, 2015
(H/t Tea & Breakfast)