J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Newspaper Cartoon 
 
 J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Williams Newspaper Cartoon 
 
 Breaking News 
 
 This is not good. 
 
 A newspaper in Australia is catching A LOT of heat over a cartoon that was trying to spoof Serena Williams' incident at the U.S. Open -- because it's racist as hell. 
 
 The cartoon -- drawn by Mark Knight (editorial cartoonist for the Herald Sun newspaper) -- shows the tennis superstar stomping on her racket. 
 
 But, let's get serious, it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person -- not Serena Williams. 
 
 The cartoon has been blasted by athletes and celebs including J.K. Rowling who said, "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." 
 
 ESPN's Jemele Hill noted the racism is "About as subtle as Fran Drescher’s voice." 
 
 So far, it doesn't seem like the Herald Sun is backing down -- they retweeted the image and haven't pulled it. 
 
 At least, not yet. 
 
 As we reported ... Serena was penalized several times during Saturday's U.S. Open finals match against Naomi Osaka. Serena went off on the judge claiming he was a "thief" who stole a point from her. 
 
 The judge then penalized Serena a game for the "verbal abuse." Williams continued to go off on the guy to other tournament officials claiming the judge would never treat a man that way. ||||| This article is over 1 month old 
 
 News Corp has come under global condemnation for publishing a racist, sexist cartoon depicting Serena Williams in its Melbourne paper. 
 
 The cartoon by Mark Knight, published in Rupert Murdoch’s Herald Sun tabloid on Tuesday, depicted the tennis star having a tantrum on the court at the US Open after she lost to Naomi Osaka on Saturday. The depiction of Osaka has also been criticised as making her appear as a “white woman”. 
 
 The way Knight drew Williams has been compared to the racist illustrations ubiquitous during the US Jim Crow era and Sambo cartoons. 
 
 Condemnation of the cartoon has come from American civil rights activist the Rev Jesse Jackson, British author JK Rowling and numerous sports broadcasters, journalists and activists. 
 
 Speaking on ABC, Knight said he had “no knowledge of those cartoons or that period” and he thought the said people were “making stuff up”. 
 
 The Serena Williams cartoon exposes Australia’s ignorance on race | Alana Lentin Read more 
 
 “I’m upset that people are offended, but I’m not going to take the cartoon down,” he said. 
 
 “I can’t undraw the cartoon. I think people have just misinterpreted. Maybe there’s a different understanding of cartooning in Australia to America … It was a cartoon based on her tantrum on the day and that’s all it was.” 
 
 The National Association of Black Journalists said the cartoon was “repugnant” on many levels. 
 
 “The Sept 10 cartoon not only exudes racist, sexist caricatures of both women, but Williams’ depiction is unnecessarily sambo-like,” the association said. 
 
 “The art of editorial cartooning is a visual dialogue on the issues of the day, yet this cartoon grossly inaccurately depicts two women of colour at the US Open, one of the grandest stages of professional sports.” 
 
 Bernice King, the chief executive of the King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, said the Herald Sun’s stance was “unfortunate”. 
 
 It was “without consideration for the painful historical context of such imagery and how it can support biases and racism today”, she said. “Why wouldn’t a human being care about that?” 
 
 Be A King (@BerniceKing) So unfortunate that this is your response; and without consideration for the painful historical context of such imagery and how it can support biases and racism today. Why wouldn’t a human being care about that? 
 
 The Washington Post noted Knight drew Williams with facial features that reflected caricatures common in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
 
 “Knight’s cartoon conjures up a range of such caricatures that were branded on memorabilia and popularized on stage and screen of the era, including the minstrel-show character Topsy born out of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, as well as the title character in 1899’s ‘Little Black Sambo’,” the article said. 
 
 In an article published by the Herald Sun, Knight said he was “amazed” at the reaction, and said his cartoon was “not about race”. 
 
 “The world has gone crazy,” he said. Knight said reaction on social media was “unfair”. 
 
 “I tried to reply to these people but they just don’t listen,” he said. “On any given day you are a hero and on any given day you are a pariah. And you just have to live with it.” 
 
 Knight had publicly replied to one person on Twitter – US sportswriter Julie DiCaro – seeking an apology for her suggestion it was sexist. 
 
 Mark Knight (@Knightcartoons) Well Julie here’s a cartoon I drew a few days before when Australian male tennis player Kyrgios at the US Open was behaving badly. Don’t bring gender into it when it’s all about behaviour. I’ll accept your apology in writing😁 pic.twitter.com/NLV0AjPGsY 
 
 
 
 The executive chairman of News Corp Australia, Michael Miller, said criticism of Knight “shows the world has gone too PC”. 
 
 Michael Miller (@mm_newscorpaus) Criticism of Mark Knight's Serena Williams cartoon shows the world has gone too PC & misunderstands the role of news media cartoons and satire. Poor behaviour in any sport needs to be called out. #media #cartoons #markknight @Knightcartoons @theheraldsun https://t.co/KQFuvIJp0Q pic.twitter.com/sRo3AQ1cJW 
 
 Editor of the Herald Sun, Damon Johnston, also defended Knight. 
 
 “A champion tennis player had a mega tantrum on the world stage, and Mark’s cartoon depicted that,” Johnston said. “It had nothing to do with gender or race.” 
 
 The Herald Sun article ended with a series of other recent Knight cartoons, but did not include one from last month about Sudanese-Australian violence in Melbourne, which also sparked accusations of racism. 
 
 Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) This is Jim Crow-racist. He Sambo’d Serena Williams. I’m a bit surprised that @Knightcartoons didn’t include a watermelon. For those unfamiliar with the history invoked here, read about the coon caricature. https://t.co/ffmrk76MRM 
 
 Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) https://t.co/LgBOr5vgkA: #SerenaWilliams shown as angry baby, #NaomiOsaka as a blonde White Woman, in controversial #USOpen cartoon from Australian newspaper & cartoonist, #HeraldSun & #MarkKnight: 
 
 
 
 .@RevJJackson @SantitaJ @Knightcartoons @theheraldsun 
 
 https://t.co/7l7gKuwtWk 
 
 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 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. https://t.co/YOxVMuTXEC 
 
 NUFF (@nuffsaidny) The saddest part about Mark Knight’s cartoon depiction of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, is that he believes that he has done nothing wrong and that everyone is overreacting and does not understand the art of caricature. Racist bigotry at its finest. 
 
 Jeanette 📺📻🎙🦊 (@JNETTEKWAKYE) No matter what you think about this situation. THIS ‘cartoon’ is disgusting on so many levels. https://t.co/ks2cZDncGS 
 
 deray (@deray) The racist cartoon re: Serena at the #USOpen is a reminder that there remains a strong appetiteand acceptance for anti-blackness in the media and in segments of society. How did that even get published? 
 
 Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) As we all head to work this week, I feel very sad for the individual and collective consciousness of Black women, which has been & will be stressed hard. https://t.co/4oBhVZS2gu 
 
 Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) The Australian cartoonist of *that* Serena cartoon has form. pic.twitter.com/n7RhMzhADG 
 
 Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) Don’t know much about the Herald Sun. DO know this Mark Knight muthafucka shouldn’t be employed anywhere on this planet. https://t.co/46g7dh797h ||||| CLOSE SportsPulse: Trysta Krick and Nancy Armour look at the complicated history between the tennis community and Serena Williams that help lead to the controversy at the US Open this past weekend and the subsequent racially insensitive cartoon depicting Williams. USA TODAY 
 
 Serena Williams breaks her racquet in frustration in the US Open final against Naomi Osaka. (Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 The artist behind a controversial and widely criticized cartoon of Serena Williams defended his depiction of Williams’ meltdown at the US Open and said it had nothing to do with race. 
 
 Mark Knight, a cartoonist for "The Herald Sun" in Australia, said in an interview Monday evening that his portrayal of Williams stomping on her racket as the chair umpire asked Naomi Osaka to let Williams win was an accurate representation of their final match. 
 
 “There’s nothing inaccurate in the cartoon, but I’m sorry it’s being taken by social media and distorted so much,” he said. 
 
 “The cartoon is about Serena, it was about her poor behavior. It had nothing to do with race.” 
 
 Author J.K. Rowling blasted the image as did numerous US media outlets. 
 
 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. https://t.co/YOxVMuTXEC — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 10, 2018 
 
 “People said I’m a racist because I drew Serena as an African American woman,” Knight explained. “I drew her as this powerful figure, which she is, she’s strongly built. They say I’m racist because I drew Naomi Osaka in the background with blonde hair. Well, she does have her hair dyed blonde.” 
 
 Knight said that his phone “melted down” as criticism of his portrait roiled social media all day. He also said his wife and children were subjected to threats on their Instagram pages as a result of the cartoon. 
 
 “This is how crazy it gets. It gets picked up by social media and it’s like a rolling thunder, a storm gathering intensity until it just turns into a tornado of false accusations and crazy things that aren’t even there.” 
 
 Knight defended his work and said there are previous examples of him portraying Williams in a more favorable light. 
 
 “I think these days, I don’t think you can, it’s called punching down,” he said. “You can’t punch down these days. And what that means is you can’t criticize minority groups for poor behavior. You just can’t go there. But I’m a cartoonist and I comment on all topics.” ||||| FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, file photo, Serena Williams, right, talks with referee Brian Earley during the women's final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, file photo, Serena Williams, right, talks with referee Brian Earley during the women's final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, in New York. Some black women say Serena Williams’ experience at the U.S. Open final resonates with them.... (Associated Press) 
 
 MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A cartoon of Serena Williams that has been widely condemned as a racist depiction of the tennis great has been partially reprinted on the front page of the Melbourne-based newspaper that initially published it. 
 
 The Herald Sun newspaper printed an edited portion of the cartoon — featuring 23-time Grand Slam winner Williams jumping on a broken racket during her dispute with a chair umpire in the U.S. Open final — among caricatures of other famous people Wednesday under the headline "Welcome to the PC World." 
 
 The newspaper, which has Australia's largest circulation, has defended its cartoonist Mark Knight's depiction of Williams and is asserting that the condemnation, which has come from all parts of the world, is driven by political correctness. 
 
 "If the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, our new politically correct life will be very dull indeed," the paper said on its front page. 
 
 Williams has won the Australian Open singles title seven times at Melbourne Park, including in 2017 when she was pregnant. She is a crowd favorite at the first tennis major of the year, which is held each January at a venue that is within sight of the Herald Sun's headquarters. 
 
 In comments published by News Corp., Knight said that he created the cartoon after watching Williams' "tantrum" during her U.S. Open final loss to Naomi Osaka on Saturday and that it was designed to illustrate "her poor behavior on the day, not about race." 
 
 Knight reportedly has disabled his Twitter account after his post of the cartoon attracted tens of thousands of comments, mostly critical. 
 
 During the final against Osaka, Williams got a warning from the chair umpire for violating a rarely enforced rule against receiving coaching from the sidelines. An indignant Williams emphatically defended herself, denying she had cheated. A short time later, she smashed her racket in frustration and was docked a point. She protested and demanded an apology from the umpire, who penalized her a game. 
 
 Critics of Knight's cartoon described it as a clear example of a stereotype facing black women, depicting Williams as an irate, hulking, big-mouthed black woman jumping up and down on a broken racket. The umpire was shown telling a blond, slender woman — meant to be Osaka, who is Japanese and Haitian — "Can you just let her win?" 
 
 "I was deeply offended. This is not a joke," said Vanessa K. De Luca, former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, who wrote a column about the U.S. Open furor. 
 
 The cartoonist "completely missed the point of why she was upset," De Luca told The Associated Press. "It was about her integrity, and anybody who doesn't get that is perpetuating the erasure that so many black women feel when they are trying to speak up for themselves. It's like our opinions don't matter." 
 
 In a social media post, Peter Blunden, managing director of News Corp.'s operations in the state of Victoria, said: "Australia's finest cartoonist Mark Knight has the strongest support of his colleagues for his depiction of Serena Williams' petulance. It's about bad behavior, certainly not race. The PC brigade are way off the mark ... again." 
 
 This isn't the first time a cartoon in a News Corp. newspaper has drawn allegations of racism. In 2009, civil rights leaders and others criticized a New York Post cartoon that some interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee. 
 
 In Britain, where fiercely competitive tabloids often trade in sensationalism, Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers have been accused of sexism, racism and xenophobia over the years. Last year a former editor of the Murdoch-owned Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, quit as a contributor to the tabloid after writing a column comparing a soccer player with part-Nigerian heritage to a gorilla. 
 
 Many years of outrage over articles and cartoons did little to hurt Murdoch's power over British politics and media, though his papers' underhanded practices did. Murdoch was forced to shut down the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World in 2011 after the revelation that its employees had eavesdropped on the phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims. 
 
 Australian indigenous playwright and actress Nakkiah Lui tweeted in response to the front page, saying the Herald Sun needed to "chill." 
 
 "Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom above criticism," she said. 
 
 "What we have is a bunch of people who get paid to publicly exercise their implied freedom to speech then whining when people disagree with what they have had the privilege of being paid to say," she added. 
 
 Australian writer Maxine Beneba Clarke said she believed the front page demonstrated a "misunderstanding" of the criticism leveled at the cartoon. 
 
 "I think it's really interesting that the Herald Sun has not included really any other caricatures or cartoons of black people — either Aboriginal people or African-American people, black people of any descent," Clarke, who is of Afro-Caribbean descent, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. 
 
 Cartoonist Paul Zanetti, a friend of Knight, said cartooning was under threat from political correctness, and the Herald Sun front page "spelt out exactly where we are at this point." 
 
 "Political correctness is really all about censoring, it's about being bullied into conforming to a view of the world," he said. ||||| Serena Williams was portrayed as an angry baby in a cartoon published in the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun on Monday, two days after the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion lost her cool in a dramatic US Open final. 
 
 Williams was given three code violations during her straight-sets loss to Naomi Osaka on Saturday. 
 
 The first violation was for coaching, which Williams argued against. "I don't cheat to win — I'd rather lose," she said. 
 
 Williams was later given a violation for smashing her racket, costing her a point. Her third violation, for calling the umpire Carlos Ramos a "thief," cost her a game. 
 
 She repeatedly demanded an apology from Ramos. Speaking with the referee to protest Ramos' call, she argued that male players weren't punished for similar, or worse, actions. "Because I'm a woman, you're going to take this away from me?" she said. 
 
 Williams was fined $17,000, which is deducted from her prize money of $1.85 million as the tournament's runner-up, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 In response, the Herald Sun's editorial cartoonist, Mark Knight, lampooned Williams in his latest piece. 
 
 Williams is shown with grotesque features including an oversize nose and lips and is pictured jumping up and down with a broken racket and a pacifier nearby, insinuating that Williams acted like a baby having a temper tantrum during the final. 
 
 The cartoon also pictures 20-year-old Osaka, one of the rising stars in women's tennis, in the background, where the umpire tells her: "Can you just let her win?" 
 
 Here is the cartoon: 
 
 The cartoon provoked an angry response on Twitter, where some users have also commented on how Osaka appears to be portrayed as a white, blond woman in the drawing. 
 
 "Regardless of the rights and wrongs of Williams' behaviour, I really don't like that cartoon at all," one Twitter user said. "Why is Naomi Osaka suddenly transformed into a white, blonde player? Why is Carlos Ramos white too? And why are Serena Williams' facial features distorted like that?" 
 
 Another Twitter user said: "Thank you for this cartoon. I will be sure to use it when I write about how Black women are treated and characterized for speaking up for themselves. The way you have drawn both women speaks volumes about who you are and how you feel about Black women. Shame." 
 
 A polarizing US Open final 
 
 While Osaka beat Williams in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, headlines did not focus on her first major win, instead fixating on Williams' hat trick of code violations. 
 
 The decision to reprimand Williams polarized the tennis industry and wider sporting press, especially after Williams claimed she had been treated differently than a male tennis player would have been. Ben Rothenberg, a freelance journalist for The New York Times, argued on Twitter that all sanctions were fair. 
 
 The US tennis great Billie Jean King, however, suggested Williams had indeed identified a double standard in tennis.
– Serena Williams' loss to Naomi Osaka over the weekend at the US Open continues to generate headlines beyond the world of sports. One of the buzzier stories Monday concerned a cartoon—see it here—that it appeared in the Herald Sun of Australia, reports Business Insider. It depicts Williams, with exaggerated features, throwing a tantrum. In the view of TMZ, "it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person—not Serena Williams," and plenty of people agreed, including JK Rowling. "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," she wrote. Others found it strange that the cartoonist made Osaka and the ump white, when neither are. Related coverage: Catching up: If you missed it, Williams accused ump Carlos Ramos of being a "liar" and a "thief" for docking her a point after what he deemed to be illegal communication between Williams and her coach. As she criticized him and demanded an apology, he penalized her a full game. Williams was ultimately fined $17,000. Lost in all this: The controversy has overshadowed the win by Osaka and the 20-year-old's remarkable journey. Her mother is Japanese and her father Haitian, notes the Washington Post, which makes her Japan's first Grand Slam champ. The New York Times recently profiled her, wondering whether she can "burst Japan's expectations of what it means to be Japanese."