Serena Williams shared a statement on her Instagram account on Monday taking aim at the recent racist comments Nastase made about Serena’s unborn child, and she did not hold back in smacking down the Romanian tennis captain:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTR9sj8BAmD/
A choice excerpt:
“It disappoints me to know we live in a society where people like Ilie Nastase can make such racist comments towards myself and unborn child, and sexist comments against my peers. You may shoot me with your words… you may try to kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air, I rise.”
Nastase raised eyebrows when he was heard saying in a press conference for Romanian Simona Halep “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?”
Of course, as we have previously discussed, Williams and Nastase have some history as well. Nastase recently suggested Williams was doping without having any evidence to back up the claim. It certainly appears Nastase has some issue with Williams, although he has been getting himself in hot water for a number of reasons recently, so maybe he’s just crazy and out of touch with reality and society today.
If you wanted for some reason to defend Nastase, your argument would probably be that he simply comes from a different time, a different era, and a different world. Unfortunately, those arguments held less and less water as time goes by, especially when the person making such comments falls under an international federation that aims to bring people together rather than continue to divide based on race, culture, gender, and so on.
It doesn’t matter if Serena Williams’ child is a boy or a girl, black or white or mixed or blue with red polka dots and a neon yellow stripe down the middle. She or he will be born with more class and elegance than Nastase has.
