I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment; more than I can express; however, it is (at the very least) not at all clear in your article that these are the parameters in which you are now expressing such, and, furthermore, this is not what the core of the controversy itself is about.
Again, I can certainly see the point you talk about in the piece, but it doesn’t seem that the crux of your argument is on the basis of ‘incidental’ bias, racial or otherwise, but elitist bias: which I am at pains to re-iterate doesn’t seem like bias at all: given that it is a metric of the game, if not the most primary, and perhaps more generally, competitive sport.
Yes, she hasn’t played against any of the competitors, and again, I also alluded to this. But you were certainly quite cock-sure that she needn’t, and that her being the ‘best’; wasn’t at all a quality of her professionalism or virtue, (at the very least, it isn’t at all clear in your article), but definitively a quality of her being the “best athlete,” — something you reiterate when you later say “ Of course it makes sense that an aging legend would see it fit to point out the limitations of her ranking — especially when men are involved — particularly White men.”
I am not at all in disagreement with anything you have just said in your response, and I am extraordinarily happy that you responded in the first place. My concern is not at all about me perceiving you to be ‘racist’; my concern is rooted in your decision to discuss a news-item without balancing the various nuances and the very important context of the story in the first place. Perhaps you don’t consider yourself a journalist, which is fine (although I would think you one, in some sense or another), but unfortunately if you are going to engage with news-stories, the implications of which are that many in your audience are probably reading of such for the first time from you; mis-representing the facts or context(unintentionally or otherwise) are going to call for criticisms such as my previous reply.
Thanks again for your response, and have a lovely weekend.
-C
