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Post by Admin on Sept 16, 2020 23:40:16 GMT
Naomi Osaka had a clear message throughout her championship U.S. Open run in New York: Black Lives Matter.
Before her first match and all the way through until her victory over Victoria Azarenka in the Final, Osaka came to the court in a customized mask that featured the name of a Black person who had died at the hands of police violence. She wore masks with the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile and Tamir Rice.
The gesture was one of protest and of solidarity, something she faced a lot of heat for on social media. On Tuesday, Osaka addressed those naysayers with her particular brand of steely verve.
“All the people that were telling me to “keep politics out of sports”, (which it wasn’t political at all), really inspired me to win. You better believe I’m gonna try to be on your tv for as long as possible,” she tweeted.
Often times, an athlete’s activism gets framed as a distraction from their game. Many say that the added emotional pressure of caring about and fighting for something greater than themselves splits their focus and weakens their performance on the court or on the field. Yet, Osaka’s Twitter message seems to be the exact opposite. Instead of being beaten down by the haters or being distracted by her activism, she used it all to spur her on to victory.
Osaka, whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese, has been especially active in fighting anti-Black racism, not only on social media but during her post-game interviews as well. After victory over Azarenka, Osaka was asked what message she was trying to send with her masks. Without hesitating, Osaka forced the question back onto the viewing public.
“What was the message that you got?,” she said. “Isn’t that more the question? I think the point is to get people to start talking.”
Osaka hasn’t backed down an inch from her activism, and instead of it splitting her focus, it’s only cemented further what kind of extraordinary player and person she is.
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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2020 7:42:09 GMT
The anti-racism stance taken by tennis player Naomi Osaka on the courts of the U.S. Open has drawn widespread attention from the public and elicited differing responses from her sponsors in Japan and elsewhere. Starting with her first match, Osaka entered the court wearing a black mask with the name of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed at the hands of police, on it as a call for an end to racial discrimination. "I don't think she needed to do that while she's fighting her way to the top. If possible, we'd like her to attract more attention with her tennis skills," said a source linked to a Japanese corporate sponsor of Osaka's. "She's taken on a leadership role as a Black person, and what she's doing is great as a human being, but whether that will help raise the value of a corporate brand is another thing. There hasn't been any impact in particular, but it's not something we're openly happy about." Another source linked to a different Japanese corporate sponsor said, "I think it's wrong to bring the issue of racial discrimination and her trade, tennis, together." Meanwhile, one of her other sponsors, an American corporation, has reacted very differently. A person involved with the company said that in the U.S., it's riskier not to say you take a stand against racial discrimination, because if you don't say anything, you could be seen as being accepting it. They said that there are a lot of companies that uphold diversity and inclusion and also agree to help stop discrimination as part of their corporate principles. After Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in late August, NBA teams boycotted games in protest of the incident, and MLB games were postponed due to players refusing to play. Naomi Osaka announced she was withdrawing from the Western & Southern Open semifinals -- a qualifier for the U.S. Open -- in protest. Soon thereafter, the tournament decided to postpone the match by a day in solidarity with the protesters, and Osaka decided she would play the next day, sending a strong message to the world. In the NBA, where the majority of players are Black, actions taken to demand an end to racial discrimination are not uncommon. An official from a management company that has a contract with a Black NBA player explained that the top athletes have the strongest awareness that they must take the initiative to act as a representative of the Black community. And Black children, they said, dream of getting into the NBA, watching those top-tier athletes. There are some compromises that Osaka, who was born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, and grew up in the U.S. since she was three, is not willing to make. "If I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction," she wrote in her now-famous tweet. Osaka arrived at the U.S. Open with seven masks, one for each round of the tournament, and each emblazoned with the name of a Black person who had been a victim of police violence. She's worn six now. What drives Osaka is her hope that people will get to know the victims better, and do what she can to prevent younger people from suffering from racial injustice.
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Post by Admin on Sept 18, 2020 2:44:12 GMT
Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who won the US Open on Saturday, announced Thursday night that she will not play in this month's French Open. Osaka, ranked third in the world, cited a lingering left hamstring injury and a lack of preparation time on the clay surface as the reasons for her not playing. "Unfortunately I won't be able to play the French Open this year," she wrote on social media. "My hamstring is still sore so I won't have enough time to prepare for the clay -- these 2 tournaments came too close to each other for me this time. I wish the organizers and players all the best." The French Open is scheduled to begin in Paris on Sept. 27, after being rescheduled from its traditional spring dates amid the coronavirus pandemic. Osaka has never advanced past the third round of the event. She did not say when she will play next, but did sign off in the post by assuring her fans they would see her "sooner than later."
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Post by Admin on Sept 20, 2020 23:40:36 GMT
Billie Jean King says women's tennis is very fortunate to have two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka as a role model.
Not only did the 22-year-old Japanese player win a second title at Flushing Meadows last week, she also became a champion for equality, taking a lead in highlighting racial injustice.
The 76-year-old King likens Osaka's off-court stance to that of the Original Nine, a group of players led by King who fought tirelessly to start a professional women's tennis tour, which in turn led to the creation of the WTA in 1973.
"She is already huge on and off the court. She is very humble and really looks at you when you talk to her and takes in the information and comes up with an authentic response," King said of Osaka, whose mother is Japanese and father Haitian.
"In many ways Naomi is a product of the Original Nine. Think about that, she is what we fought for. That if you're good enough you will have a place to compete, wherever you are from.
Osaka instigated a one-day shutdown of the Western and Southern Open the week before the U.S. Open, pulling out of her semi-final in protest at the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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Post by Admin on Sept 23, 2020 21:18:29 GMT
World number three and US Open champion Naomi Osaka has been included on TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Osaka captured her third Grand Slam title in as many seasons when she won at Flushing Meadows for the second time earlier this month, though it was not her tennis that saw her make headlines across the globe. The Japanese wore face masks before and after all of her seven matches in New York that featured the names of different black victims of police violence in America, having previously planned to boycott her Western and Southern Open semi-final clash following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Writing for TIME, Basketball star and Olympic Champion Maya Moore said she was inspired by how the former world number one “wove her dominant athletic performance into another narrative.” “It took incredible focus, courage and intentionality to carry herself the way she did. To use her gifts and talents, her voice and her platform, to honour the preciousness of Black and brown lives,” added Moore. “If somebody like Naomi can have the courage to use what she has to call people higher, then we can too.” It is the second year in a row that Osaka has featured on the magazine’s list of the most influential people in America and across the globe, with 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert writing about the Japanese for last year’s magazine. Osaka was also revealed to be the highest-paid female athlete in the world by Forbes Magazine last month.
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