Race-obsessed commentators see issue with Mark Knight’s Serena Williams’ cartoon, writes Rita Panahi

SHOW a race-obsessed agitator a cartoon lampooning a petulant tennis star and all they’ll see is ‘racism’. That’s all they ever see whether it exists or not, writes Rita Panahi.

SHOW a race-obsessed agitator a cartoon lampooning a petulant tennis star and all they’ll see is “racism”. That’s all they ever see, whether it exists or not.

You know we live in crazy times when a progressive artist from country Victoria is slandered around the world as a racist misogynist for a funny cartoon that depicts Serena Williams’ outrageous antics at the US Open tennis final.

Maybe Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight should have portrayed Williams as a white man since that is the only race gender combination that can be mocked without triggering the outrage enthusiasts.

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Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight at his home studio. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The same people disgusted by Knights’ depiction of Williams had no issue with his cartoon a few days earlier on the equally infantile behaviour of Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios.

It wasn’t bigoted to portray Kyrgios as a ridiculous sulky baby but poking fun at the world’s biggest female sporting star having the world’s biggest dummy spit is somehow out of bounds.

A cartoonist exaggerating the subject’s features and ridiculing their behaviour is hardly groundbreaking.

And no, there wasn’t really a baby’s pacifier on the court when Williams had her tantrum but that is part of the humour and embellishment that cartoonists routinely employ to make a point. It’s astonishing that something so obvious needs to be pointed out.

“I have to make her look like who she is. I’m not going to draw Taylor Swift when I’m portraying Serena Williams,” Knight explained.

“It’s a cartoon about poor behaviour. It’s got nothing to do with race.

“Maybe you can’t caricature people of colour but a couple of weeks ago I did a cartoon of Aretha Franklin. I’ve heard cartoonists say to criticise a minority in any way is ‘punching down’ and because I’m a white man, it’s out of bounds for me to criticise someone like Serena Williams.”

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Knight’s cartoon came under fire on social media.

In what sort of insane parallel universe is criticism of a multimillionaire who is among the most influential people, male or female, in world sport considered ‘punching down’?

What would be racist and sexist is if Knight treated Williams differently because of her race or gender, if he gave her a pass because of her colour or the fact that she has two X chromosomes.

But that is precisely what those who engage in the bigotry of low expectations demand.

Australian writer/performer and “comic” Eddie Perfect appointed himself spokesman for the country: “To all my non-Australian friends and followers; we all think Mark Knight is a racist asshole too.”

It’ll be devastating for Perfect to learn that the whole country isn’t filled with humourless self-loathers who have lost all perspective and blindly follow the American path into race baiting idiocy.

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Harry Potter author turned Twitter troll J.K. Rowling also condemned the cartoon along with US actors and anti-Trump activists Debra Messing and Ron Perlman.

“Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop,” Rowling tweeted.

But then Rowling and many others on the Left were already pushing the narrative that Williams’ meltdown wasn’t bad sportsmanship but a brave stand for women’s rights before Knight’s cartoon was even published.

Mark Knight’s cartoon marking the death of Aretha Franklin.

Indeed that twisted narrative was being pushed as soon as Williams lost to Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who conducted herself with grace throughout the ordeal.

The Washington Post, which on Tuesday called Knight’s cartoon racist, joined ESPN in immediately diminishing Osaka’s achievement and painting Williams as a victim of the patriarchy: “We’ll never know if young Osaka really won the 2018 US Open or had it handed to her by a man who was going to make Serena Williams feel his power.”

CNN said: “Williams was being punished for speaking her truth” — never mind that it bears no relation to the truth.

Katie Rosman from The New York Times tweeted after the match: “Serena, you are such a champion!!! What leadership, dignity and poise.”

Yes, the cringeworthy display of arrogant entitlement — including violations for receiving coaching, racquet abuse and an astonishing, prolonged attack against an umpire who Williams smeared as a “liar” and “thief” and threatened “you are never going to be on my court again” — is considered “dignity and poise” by activist journalists. No wonder trust in the media is at historic lows in the US.

Serena Williams argues with the chair umpire during a match against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, during the women's finals of the U.S. Picture: AP.

The truth is that a 36-year-old veteran behaved atrociously and then sought to absolve herself of all responsibility by playing the gender card.

Williams, despite her enormous success has long played the victim and did so again in the post-match press conference, claiming she was making a stand for women’s rights.

Was Williams fighting for women’s rights when she threatened violence against a female line judge or when she abused female referees or when she sullied the most significant achievement of a young athlete’s life with her self-obsessed, infantile antics?

If you think Australia is immune from this victimhood idiocy, think again.

Sadly, we are following the US and UK where rationality is sidelined in favour of hysterical race baiting.

The local outrage merchants — who don’t get worked up when Knight mocks Trump, Abbott, Dutton and other conservative targets — cry racism if he dares draw African youth or a spoiled tennis star.

The only criticism I have of the cartoon is that Osaka didn’t sufficiently look like Osaka.

The cartoon had Osaka’s blonde ponytail but though Knight painted her in brown tones, to my pedantic eye she looked a little too light.

We are all critics but to label everything as inherently racist only diminishes real instances of racism and provides cover for real racists. Mark Knight is about as racist as I’m Chinese.

Perhaps Knight should’ve drawn Williams with a narrow nose, thin lips and a slight frame — nothing like she actually looks — to avoid the insanity that has ensued.

Determining that some people are immune from caricature or censure purely because of their race is funnily enough racist.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.

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