VENUS and SERENA WILLIAMS are interviewed in the
current issue of WOMEN'S SPORTS & FITNESS by Sally Jenkins,
who questions whether these "Cinderellas of the ghetto" are
"master manipulators." Jenkins: "They constantly test the
established way of doing things in that most established of
sports. They test its dress code. They test its code of
conduct. They test its bigotry." Jenkins says that the
sisters, who have "reinvigorated tennis with their
strappingly hip, shop-till-you-drop sister act ... dare you"
to look past their outside image so that you can "get down
to what is really important about them, to their anger,
their ambivalence and their irreverence as they expose the
dry rot in one of the most elitist sports on earth."
TOUGH TALK: In her interview, Jenkins repeatedly
attempts to initiate discussion with Venus and Serena, who
show little interest in responding. But both do speak up
when mentioning their faith as Jehovah's Witness. Venus:
"Lots of people don't know much about it, so they have
prejudice about it." Jenkins also notes the racism the
sisters have had to face on tour. Jenkins: "It has rarely
been explicit. Rather, it has been conveyed by innuendo and
insinuation, and in a subtle disproportion in the way people
respond to them." But RICHARD WILLIAMS was "full of
shocking statements and racially loaded remarks" in speaking
with Jenkins. Richard: "Most people thought, because I was
in Compton, that I was poor. Well, the only reason we moved
to Compton was that I felt I could buy more homes there than
the Jews. They were buying up the ghetto; I just wanted to
give them a little competition. ... We were making tons of
money. Everyone thought we were poor, that tennis was our
way out. It was not. ... I wanted to give the Weinsteins,
the Rubensteins, the I-forget-the-other-Steins,
competition." But after further discussion, Jenkins warns
against "dismissing" the Williamses noting that they "are in
fact wiser and more principled than they have been given
credit for" (WOMEN'S SPORTS & FITNESS, 11-12/98).
