Williams starts the essay by sharing a hard-to-hear statistic : "Black women are 37 cents behind men in the pay gap—in other words, for every dollar a man makes, black women make 63 cents." From there, she gets personal. As a Black female athlete, she has dealt with setbacks her whole career (and it's literally still happening ). "Growing up, I was told I couldn’t accomplish my dreams because I was a woman and, more so, because of the colour of my skin," she writes. "In every stage of my life, I’ve had to learn to stand up for myself and speak out. I have been treated unfairly, I’ve been disrespected by my male colleagues and—in the most painful times—I’ve been the subject of racist remarks on and off the tennis court. Luckily, I am blessed with an inner drive and a support system of family and friends that encourage me to move forward. But these injustices still hurt."