Venus and Serena Called "Brothers"

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SINGAPORE -- Serena Williams says comments by the head of the Russian Tennis Federation referring to her and older sister Venus as "brothers" were bullying, sexist and racist, and that she supported the one-year suspension imposed by the WTA against the official.

Shamil Tarpischev was also fined $25,000 for making the comments on Russian television. He said the sisters were "scary" to look at.

So is Tarpischev's punishment fitting?

He is just buttfrustrated that the "brothers" basically make sure that Sharapova will never have a hard-court title...

I think she needs to thicken her skin and get over it. Personally, I find the comments to be quite funny.

Yeah if there's one thing the Williams sisters are known for, it's not being able to deal with adversity and ignorant comments.

I have removed some posts from this thread, as they violated WP's rule against offensive language.

To the person who made the remarks: If you feel so upset by women with muscles, perhaps you should get some yourself, then you can feel like more of a man.

I do find the comment offensive. Strength is not totally in the domain of men. My mind couldn't help but reverse the gender to the McKenroe sisters. This would be meant as an insult suggesting they are weak.

So yes offended because the strength and stature of the Williams sisters does not take away from their womanhood. To suggest that it does is to suggest that woman are intrinsically weak. Or at least that this is what men value in women. And if men value weakness in women, I'm not sure what that makes them.

I get how the comment is bullyish.

but.. racist? Really? How used do you have to be to play the race card to claim that?

I don't know. I'm not black.

I remember back when the sisters first came on the tennis scene and on live tv after a match at one of the major tournaments one of the other female players was being interviewed on live tv by the network carrying the event at the time, the sisters walked in on the interview and told the interviewer, on live tv, that if they were to be interviewed it would have to be NOW and that the current player being interviewed would have to leave to accommodate their demand. It was not until they had won a few majors that they began to behave like professionals instead of inferring that the other successful players at the time were all "racists" because they did not just lie down and accept the sisters as winners before they earned their title. First impressions are lasting. I think the sisters are seeing that their time is drawing to an end and maybe starting to behave a little cocky and people are resenting it. The Williams sisters have been crying "racism" from the beginning. When people made the same kind of comments regarding Billy Jean King and Martina Navratilova they didnt waste time crying about it, they just went out and kicked a**

I'd say the Williams "sisters" have kicked plenty of high calibre backside in their time regardless of the constant negative media they get like some of the comments on this thread.

Black women have historically been referred to and stereotyped as mannish.

They have kicked lots of behind in their careers, but they still carry that chip on their shoulder. I don't deny them their ability and skill, and all of the hard work that they have put in, but their father indoctrinated them well with his mindset of society. I still see from both of them the need to continue proving themselves to the white powers that be. I have followed them well and studied them enough to be able to predict within seconds when Venus particularly is about to fault or lose a point. You can see sometimes in her eye when she tosses the ball in the air to serve and her eye flits over toward her box for a brief millisecond, you can see fear and insecurity in that eye and a slight quiver in the side of her lip. When that begins, she invariable begins to falter and seems to lose all confidence in her abilities. Sometimes she recovers in time to save the match, but many is the time I have seen that brief lapse cost her everything.

This is the first time I hear/read of this honestly.

"

Native American women too.

I disagree this has anything to do with their ethnicity. Much of the allegations you make I have witnessed in most female tennis players. They are all indoctrinated to believe they are the best, when they lose they all make excuses or try dirty little tricks (such as Azerenka's classic going off the court with a mysterious ailment to put off her (coincidentally African American) opponent Sloane Stephens.

Your claims are preposterous in one aspect in that if they really had a chip on their should they have done remarkably (infact incredibly) well despite all the (according to you) enormous distractions of politics, race and their devious daddy filling their heads with tactics to make the blood boil in good o'l white folk like us,

After the famous racist heckling they recieved in the Arizona ATP tour in Indian Welles I was amazed they were able to pick themselves up and keep playing, Any tennis administrator with any conscience should have closed down that tournament based on the rather unpalatable behavior of the local Arizonians (not the first time the local inhabitants were irked by successful black people as they also boycotted the national Martin Luther King holiday).

Usually by racist white people (shock horror!!)