Racism and Discrimination

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Racism and Discrimination

flamingowings · All-time great

Racism

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

This is copy of the link in the Body Shape thread, regarding the story of Taylor Townsend and the USTA, as it covers both aspects, and I wasn't too sure where it fitted best.

www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/taylor-townsend-tennis

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 10th of June 2021 07:22:58 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

I must admit rhat I knew nothing of the Doug Adler 'case'. Shocking, absolutely shocking.

We all know how initially very well meant causes can get out of hand and possibly taken off track when extremists ensnare the innocent. That Ben Rorhenburg was the source of this just seems crazy. You cannot be serious. man! ESPN's reaction was pathetic, as was the then general looking away. And still the man suffers

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 13th of June 2021 11:22:18 PM

Andy Parker · Strong Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
This is copy of the link in the Body Shape thread, regarding the story of Taylor Townsend and the USTA, as it covers both aspects, and I wasn't too sure where it fitted best.

www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/taylor-townsend-tennis

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 10th of June 2021 07:22:58 AM

Long but interesting article which raises lots of questions about why she was treated so badly - at the end of the day, she clearly felt prejudice against her and whether it was based on the colour of her skin or her body shape, it seems like she was clearly discriminated against. Hopefully things are better here than in the USA, but it shows to me the importance of the Black Lives Matter campaign, of taking a knee and of standing up against all kinds of prejudice - whether it is racism, sexism, homophobia or other kinds of bigotry.

Townsend points out that when she was blocked from competing in the seniors and not given a wildcard, she was Number One in the juniors and it just felt blatantly unfair that she was put on a weight training and fitness programme just before the US Open, when she felt she was fit and had never been skinny (even though they later discovered she was anaemic, which is a bit of a red herring in the story as they didn't know it at the time).

Three or four years ago, my other half and I finally got round to visiting the USA - we started with a huge 30 state road trip that did a kind of circle from Arizona up to Wyoming, east to Dakota and then south through to Texas, and then we spent time on the East Coast working our way up from New York to Washington and Boston. We visited a lot of the less touristy places and thus got to see a lot of small city and small town America that a lot of people don't see, and we also spent a lot of time in the red neck parts of America.

We enjoyed the trip hugely but there were still several depressing things struck me about the USA - maybe the biggest being how the different races in a lot of the smaller places clearly lived side by side, but with not a lot of interaction with each other - so you would see communities of Mexicans, native Americans, black people and white people, but would seldom see people racially mixing socially, as would be common in our cities. In the developed and more modern cities on the East coast like New York for instance, this was less the case, but go to Nevada, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Dakota, Oklahoma and the like and you felt like there was still an informal segregation. Seeing what Taylor writes takes me back to my time there, and in a lot of ways, although her experiences are very depressing, it doesn't surprise me that much.

The fact that she is brave enough to raise the issues and demand them to be made public though is a major positive thing and total respect to her for doing that and on a thought provoking and very readable article that demands for these issues to be debated and those making decisions called to account. I think it would be impossible to read her article and not feel she was treated harshly and it would be a harsh person who did not empathise with what happened to her.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Sunday 13th of June 2021 10:25:47 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Racism and Discrimination

flamingowings · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
The governing body of mens tennis has issued a fine to Danish tennis star Holder Rune (former junior no. 1) for a series of homophobic remarks he made during a match on the Challenger Tour.

www.ubitennis.net/2021/06/holger-rune-fined-over-homophobic-remarks/

That's definitely a "fine" rather than a fine imo.

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Wonder how many times Paire has got fined for this type of thing

christ · Futures qualifying

Calling oneself names is a long standing method of self-encouragement. Is there an audible insult that isn't offensive to some group?

junior · Intermediate Club Player

True, he seems to have got the short straw on this one, I'd also imagine the ITF might have to go out their way a small bit to translate Danish as compared to French/Italian. Anything for them to make a bit of money and a bit of a statement, small bit hypocritical

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

christ wrote:
Calling oneself names is a long standing method of self-encouragement. Is there an audible insult that isn't offensive to some group?

Indeed. But, yes, there are many insults that aren't offensive to a particular group.

Without going into too many details, if a bloke shouts as himself 'you're such a friggin w*n*er', he's not going to offend any particular group (a few wisecrack jokes spring to mind but I won't go there) And there are many other insults too.

Translating Danish is hardly rocket science, junior. You make it sound as though it's some long-lost tribal language. It's the EU, for goodness sake.

Dan Evans fell foul of this too once. And apologised. And - as far as a I know - has never done it again.

It's not difficult. It's a learning exercise. And hopefully Rune has learnt.

christ · Futures qualifying

Brings the "insult coach" into play: training the players in how best to insult/ motivate themselves whilst only insulting powerless minority groups (like onanists).

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Can't remember the part when I said Danish would be impossible to translate Coup, said it's more difficult to understand and recognize as other closer languages. Not to mention the ITF is British/French so he probably thought he was doing well to avoid either of those languages. In 11/12 years on the ITF's have never once seen a Scandinavian umpire for example, and I would have thought the ITF too busy to pick up on every little thing, with all if these fixed matches and draws getting past them, from some of the bigger organizations as well, priorities.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Didn't say you said it was 'impossible'

Said you made it sound like it was some long-lost language.

I imagine some person who understood Danish complained to the ITF. I doubt the ITF picked it up themselves.

And fair enough.

Although, as people will remember from a previous story, French umpires are usually given a list of swear words in all the languages of the competing players (makes for interesting evenings

)

Anyway, Rune'll learn that, in public, and knowing the rules of the hosting authority, he should not use specifically offensive language.

junior · Intermediate Club Player

I like to think I'm quite handy at languages, still haven't got the smallest idea what they are saying when I hear the Scandinavian ones. Never met anyone who speaks one as a second/learnt language either. Long lost language no, but very specific to its geographical location yes.

French players/children are by far the worst offenders (followed by aussies and/or italians) at this, which is how I know a vast array of insults and swear words in French. So their lists don't work, should fine every single players then with this logic?