The Weekend of My Embarassment

On Saturday during the day, I had the enormous pleasure of hosting "Conversation at CAAM" where a World War II fighter pilot, bank president, NAACP area president, Police Commission Board chair and all around brilliant lawyer Elbert Hudson spoke of the past and the future, patterns of behavior established by his family, and offered footsteps to follow. He is a hero to me for his lifetime of service, his personality and his commitment to the race and the community. I was proud Saturday afternoon. Then things changed so hard, I wanted to hide in my house because of the beyond stupid actions of Kanye West and Serena Williams. You never know what ignorant behavoir Kanye is going come up with (although when he said on live tv that George Bush was a racist, it made me chuckle). But running up on stage to embarass every living body at the Video Music Awards ranting and screaming is beyond the pale. We know he's nuts and somebody ought to call the rubber truck to come get his behind. But what he did doesn't bother me as much as Serena's antics. She and her sister have always been golden, charmed, blessed. Well, until yesterday. Everyone who is waving the John McEnroe flag in comparison ought to check the facts. Mac was entertaining and even on his craziest day never said fuck you and threatened to kill the line judge. He got his share of bad press and it was all sort of 'ok, he's got a bad temper, but we like him anyway.' But the people who do not like Serena have been waiting for the opportunity to blast her. Sports writers are saying she has no dignity and no sportsman like qualities she's a coward and was beaten by a player fresh off maternity leave. In general they damn her saying although she has called herself the best player who ever held a racquet, she isn't, never was and needs to sit her behind down and stay there. Well, let me tell you, I'm old enough to remember when tennis was a white athletes game. They let 'the one' in, Althea Gibson. There was nervousness when Arthur Ashe got into the game, but soon there were sighs of relief all around because both those players were exemplars of sportsmanship, dignity and class. There've been people waiting ever since for black players to show their asses to prove it wasn't a wise idea to let just anybody play the game. Sorry to say, Serena's ass is showing. I'm Ruth Adkins Robinson.