Australian Council Finds Racist Serena Williams Cartoon Didn’t Breach Standards

The council accepted the newspaper’s claim the cartoon does not depict Williams as an ape.

Serena Williams of the US hits a return against Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova in 2019. (Jewel SAMAD/AFP/Getty)
Serena Williams of the US hits a return against Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova in 2019. (Jewel SAMAD/AFP/Getty)
AFP/Getty Images

A newspaper cartoon of Serena Williams which was widely condemned for being racist apparently did not violate the standards of an Australian press organization.

The cartoon, which was published by Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper last September, showed Williams jumping on her racket during her loss to Naomi Osaka in the final of the U.S. Open.

In cartoonist Mark Knight’s drawing, the 23-time major winner has very large lips and a clump of frizzy hair.

“There’s nothing inaccurate in the cartoon, but I’m sorry it’s being taken by social media and distorted so much,” Knight said in September. “The cartoon is about Serena, it was about her poor behavior. It had nothing to do with race.”

Though the Australian Press Council acknowledged some readers “found the cartoon offensive,” the watchdog said the image was valid because there was sufficient public interest in Williams.

“Specifically, concern was expressed that the cartoon depicted Ms. Williams with large lips, a broad flat nose, a wild afro-styled ponytail hairstyle different to that worn by Ms. Williams during the match and positioned in an ape-like pose,” the council said in a statement. “The council considered that the cartoon uses exaggeration and absurdity to make its point but accepts the publisher’s claim that it does not depict Ms. Williams as an ape, rather showing her as ‘spitting the dummy,’ a non-racist caricature familiar to most Australian readers.”

Following the ruling, Knight told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was “very happy.”

“I will not be changing the way I draw cartoons because I think I’m a very free and fair cartoonist and I accept issues on their merits and draw them as such,” he said.

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