The Impossible Case of Naomi Osaka
Existing as a Marginalized Person, but Not Wanting to Always Be For-Profit
Note: This piece will contain imagery depicting racism, and a lot of conversation about racism, sexism, general capitalism in action, and mental health.
At this point everyone has seen/heard/read the news about how Naomi Osaka has withdawn from the French Open. Some say she’s being unfair because ‘she knew what she signed up for’; others are wanting to (rightfully) unpack the ways in which we commodify athletes and expect them to always be performing for us: be it with the racquet in hand or post-interviews, while we’re pregnant or ten minutes after the baby is born, when we get a new shoe deal or when the deal goes under/why you declined.
I started the day of the announcement saying I was angry, but given time with friends (yea, even during a Pomegranate) and some time to sip tea and get grounded where I was almost a year ago, I can think on this more clearly.
We need to talk about how Naomi was never going to win with some of y’all, ever. I love Naomi Osaka, but by gods do I hate how we treat her.
She gets to experience the brundt of being Black on the court, being Japanese on the court (full disclosure: I will not be going into that aspect specifically, it isn’t my lane), being a woman, and now add mental health to the pile. I remember seeing the people who were angry at her for not representing US or Haiti specifically because ‘you can tell she’s Black’, while simultaneously being depicted in comics as staunchly not Black if it means the decades long campaign of hating Serena can continue.
She and Serena share a bond that many envy, and after having beat her mentor I can’t imagine how she felt. Exhilarated? Disappointed? Overjoyed? The range of emotions was probably exhaustive. And Serena, as a mentor and THEE queen of tennis, likely could not have been more proud. Media worked expeditiously to strip any and all joy from both of them, to try and pit them against one another. To see that then be followed up with ‘but why won’t she claim her Blackness MORE’ was……a journey. Luckily a journey that was short lived but as a Black woman, I’m not going to forget. It’s still a journey that happened. A journey-being pitted against one another-that many of us are accustomed to, sadly.
I’m not a big tennis fan, but my uncle in North Hollywood is. He LOVES Serena and Venus and tirelessly argues with people about the rampant and loud racism around the sport-so I’ve always been in the loop to some degree. That and-well, I’m Black. I’ve sat plenty on the internet and watched the quiet circles of hate that swirl around her, that have tried to use her as a bludgeon against Serena (because of course they would). Watched as Asian communities grew angry at her and scolded or mocked her for being proudly Black. As men fetishized her (adblocker wall), then lambasted her for not behaving the way they think she should, and finding any excuse they could to remind her of her ‘place’.
That place is one that Black athletes face constantly: one of performing. One of being grateful that white people have ‘given us permission’ to be in (and frankly, excel more at) one of ‘their’ sports. But the Naomi Osaka news….it hits different. Not just because she’s being put in our classic box of ‘Shut The Fuck Up and Perform’, but the manner in which she is put in the box is what aggravates. Now we see news outlets wanting to focus on how it ‘hurts athletes everywhere’, but the Black community and non-men have been having this conversation for decades. The Williams sisters and others have been pointing out and fighting against rampant sexism, rampant racism, and a myriad of other issues. I think it hits different because people literally just love-hate Osaka. Frankly: I don’t care about how it hurts athletes everywhere, specifically because I honestly don’t think the tennis world cares about her at all beyond
- we can use her as a Black woman against the Williams sisters
- double diversity card (yea I said it)
- more clicks/fetishization
- performative allyship
and that last one especially rings for me, given that this all came about when Osaka literally said she just wants a mental health check. A chance to leave the court and maybe go back to her damn room. Enjoy a salad. Not be inundated with mountains of press that I’m sure she’s aware just wants her to perform while they ask her invasive, rude, discriminatory and inflammatory queries. Queries that her male counterparts don’t get or are expected to embrace. Queries that actively engage more rivalry and antagonistic conversation. This fine screams a very clear ‘if you loved us, you’d stay and push through it-but since you don’t and you refuse to appreciate what we’ve done for you we have no choice but to punish you :(‘
I’ve been struggling to really parse the conversation around how it’s disingenuous to say this fine is a slight against her as a Black woman and that’s it: it’s a slight against her as a Black woman existing and thriving, it’s a slight because it disrupts the tennis world’s ability to set up rivalries and force people to into exhaustive performing which they dislike, it’s a slight against her because the French Open 100% looks at her and sees her as someone who owes them for her success.
The fine is there not just because ‘them’s the rules’ as many tennis pundits would lean into: it’s being slapped down as a very, very obvious ‘how dare you.’
- ‘How dare you say that the ways we treat you are exhausting, publicly’.
-‘How dare you-we lifted you up over that Serena bitch, and this is how you repay us? After the work we’ve done to bolster you over her?’
-’How dare you, we let you thrive in our spaces, you’re obligated to do what we say, your mental will be fine.’
-’How dare you, you’re not an exception, you’re not so special without us.’
-’How dare you, we don’t care if it actively wastes your time, we care that we can have control over you; refuse to obey and pay.’
This feels less and less about rules and much more about reminding minorities to stay in line: and I hate it. I hate it because most people are going to focus on the mental health aspect-which is good, don’t get me wrong-but this needs much more nuance.
It needs to be willing to talk about how they never cared about her mental health, because they never cared about her space as a mixed race player, they never cared about her space in wanting to be proudly Black unless it could be used to tear down other Black people, they didn’t care about her space to be Japanese unless it was to help highlight how she’s ‘not ideal Japanese.’ And as outsiders, we kind of fed into some of that bullshit too.
So I’m not sure why anyone in the spaces or in the tennis world is shocked she said ‘fuck this, I’m out’ because just writing about this with only a chunk of the perspective was exhausting. I can’t possibly imagine how she feels.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be most people’s new Favorite Minority [not by choice] and new Favorite Punching Bag [also not by choice] at the exact same time. To read the articles that suddenly care about her ‘well being’ (‘well being’ almost always alluding to ‘ability to play’ specifically, because again, this is not a new topic) or in the inverse call her selfish, self-centered, and childish. For wanting to just shower after playing rather than go straight to a boiler room full of people who want to embarrass her.
Waking up daily, knowing absolutely nothing I do will be enough or correct, and that my existence is literally just commodified to death? Even the mental health people claim to care about have been pushed more as a ‘talking piece’ as opposed to say, making sure I’m OK?
I’d go back to bed, too.
