Black Issues Forum: Biden MAGA GOPers, Student Debt and Black Women Athletes

President Joe Biden uses bold language to call out MAGA Republicans, and his student debt relief package marks another promise kept. Serena Williams evolves from tennis while Black women athletes on the Duke volleyball team continue to fight for respect. Journalist Mary C. Curtis, attorney Harold Eustache and UNC student Greear Webb join host Deborah Holt Noel to share their perspectives.

How Serena Transcended Tennis

After winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and over $100 million in prize money, this month Serena Williams announced the end of her professional tennis career. While her on-court accomplishments and longevity put her in the sporting pantheon, her cultural impact is just as remarkable.

Guest: Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of Black studies at the University of Texas Austin and co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn It All Down.

Serena Williams cartoon controversy

Beverly O’Connor talks to journalist Mary Curtis about a now infamous cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams.

Marion Bartoli, Wimbledon champ and ‘daddy’s girl,’ wins on and off the court

The worst part of the BBC radio announcer’s takedown of the newly crowned Wimbledon women’s champ? He put his own ugly words in her father’s mouth.

Choosing French player Marion Bartoli’s moment of triumph to attack her non-blondness, John Inverdale showed true cowardice when he said: “Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little, ‘You’re never going to be a looker? You’ll never be a [Maria] Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight.’”

He said this while Bartoli was rushing to the spectator’s box to her father, Dr. Walter Bartoli, who taught her to play. Dad later said, “I am not angry. She is my beautiful daughter. The relationship between Marion and me has always been unbelievable, so I don’t know what this reporter is talking about.”

And Marion Bartoli’s classy response? “It doesn’t matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry,” she said. “But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.”