Racism In Junior Tennis? Sadly, YES.

 

When it comes to tennis in general (not to mention junior tennis, specifically), it seems there's an endless list of problems that must be solved. It's kind of like my TO DO LIST - I may cross off an item here or there but mostly I just add to it! We are not listing the problems here because #1 - we are not experts and #2 - we may run out of ink, LOL but what we are doing is sharing our observations from 7+ years in the trenches with competitive junior tennis players.

By reflecting on what we see, we are shining a light of awareness on areas that may not get the attention they deserve. Sometimes things need to be said so that positive change can occur...at least that's our hope. Please remember the very last thing we want to do is generate any controversy whatsoever...
After all, if junior tennis players win, we ALL win!

As you may have guessed, first I gotta SHOUT OUT some great news about our friend Miss Taylor Townsend and her most recent opportunity-of-a-lifetime: She was invited to participate on Team Elton John for the WTT Smash Hit event in Pittsburgh, which meant that Taylor got to team up and play doubles with one of her IDOLS: fellow-lefty Martina Navratilova!!! What an amazing experience for an amazing kid!!! You will surely remember that I was and still am OUTRAGED at the treatment of this CHILD by Patrick McEnroe and the USTA. This is my opinion and my blog so I'm entitled to write whatever I want to write but if you don't think racism had anything to do with that horrible situation, I think it's time for you to wake up...

Back to the positive: I could go on and on about the reasons I'm crazy about this girl but let me just share a comment that she made at the event: "If it weren't for my sister, I may not be here today!" I'm telling you - this Taylor T is something special...and I'm not just talking tennis. She has a very special soul and we saw it when she was just 9 YEARS OLD! :) So hats off to you, Taylor T and to you too, Big Sister Symone---another very special person! But the BIGGEST shout out goes to Momma Townsend---Shelia, your daughters are beautiful girls AND the world certainly needs more of the beautiful people they are becoming! :)

We recently went to the Raleigh Bullfrog and, as you may have heard, it was a really, really rainy experience :( which meant hours and hours of waiting for dry courts on Sunday-the one and only day that wasn't 100% washed out. This left me with a ton of time to talk with customers (big surprise-that's one of my specialties-and I love talking to people) but I didn't love what I heard that day. In fact, it was very disturbing to me and I just haven't had a chance to share it until now. I'd share observations in this blog pretty much every day if I could - but there's this little thing called the mortgage, LOL. Anyway, without revealing any names (which I never have and will never do), I'll repeat the story as I understood it and please keep in mind that I wasn't there to witness or hear any of this personally:

This happened at the airlines on the way home after a BullFrog Southern Designated tournament in the Southern Section. When our customer attempted to board the plane with her tennis bag, she was prevented from doing so and told that she had to check the bag and pay a fee for doing so. When she (and her parents) pointed out that there were several other players who had boarded the plane ahead of her with the same bag, she was told that those were not tennis bags - they were car seats. What??? Car seats??? You cannot be serious!!! She told the airline personnel that those were not car seats - they were tennis bags - and she had the SAME EXACT ONE!!! Faced with such an obvious mistake, you'd think the airline personnel would have backed down and apologized for their error...

but you'd be WRONG.

Our customer was the ONLY ONE on that plane who had to check her tennis bag (AND PAY A FEE) to do so and hope you're ready for the big shockeroo: she was also the ONLY ONE on that plane who was African-American.

Her parents (particularly her father) were understandably LIVID and they demanded a refund and a letter of apology from the airline personnel when they arrived at their destination... I'm happy to say that their demands were met but of course THE DAMAGE HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE.

Try to imagine how YOU'd have felt if you'd been treated the way this young lady was treated!!! THIS HAPPENED IN 2012!!! Yes, racism is alive & well in junior tennis today. This is just one of many examples out there and we really hate that...We really, really do. :(

"Be kinder than necessary because
everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."