AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. We end the show with sports and politics, an ongoing fallout from the women’s U.S. Open final Saturday, where tennis superstar Serena Williams lost to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, after accusing umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. On Monday, the Women’s Tennis Association came out in support of Williams, with chief executive Steve Simon suggesting the umpire showed a different level of tolerance to Williams because she’s a woman. During the final, Ramos gave Williams a code violation after he deemed a gesture made towards her by her coach to be “coaching,” which is banned during a game. Ramos then penalized Williams a point after she destroyed her racket in anger, and docked her an entire game after she subsequently called the umpire a liar and a thief for stealing her point. This is an exchange between Williams and Ramos.

SERENA WILLIAMS: You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life! I have a daughter, and I stand for what’s right for her, and I’ve never cheated. And you owe me an apology! … You owe me an apology. You will never, ever, ever be on another court of mine as long as you live. You are the liar, and you stole a point from me. You’re a thief, too.

CARLOS RAMOS: Code violation. Verbal abuse. Game penalty, Mrs. Williams.

AMY GOODMAN: Williams’ opponent, Naomi Osaka, who is of Haitian and Japanese descent, went on to win the match 6-2, 6-4, in her first Grand Slam victory. On Saturday, she became the first Japanese-born player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. Speaking during a post-match news conference, Serena Williams said her treatment was different than how male tennis players are treated by umpires.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I can’t sit here and say I wouldn’t say he’s a thief, because I thought he took a game from me, but I’ve seen other men call other umpires several things. And I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality and for all kinds of stuff. And for me to say “thief” and for him to take a game? It made me feel like it was a sexist remark. I mean, like how—he has never took a game from a man because they said “thief.” For me, it blows my mind.

AMY GOODMAN: The tournament referee’s office later fined Williams $17,000 for the incident during the match.

Well, for more, we go to Penn State University, where we’re joined by Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, co-host of the sports podcast Burn It All Down. Her forthcoming book, Can’t Eat a Medal: The Lives and Labors of Black Women Athletes in the Age of Jim Crow.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you start off by talking about just what happened? I mean, how rare is this? In this extremely white sport of tennis, you have two black women on the finals court, you’ve got a Spanish umpire, and they’re playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium. And look at this controversy, with Serena Williams calling out sexism in U.S. tennis. Amira?

AMIRA ROSE DAVIS: Yeah, it was a real mess. It’s the second straight year we’ve had two black women in the final, and certainly being in Arthur Ashe gives it a certain significance. But I think one of the things here that we’ve seen is that this conversation about sexism in tennis keeps coming up. Just two weeks ago, again, we were talking about Serena’s catsuit ban, and we were talking about Alizé Cornet’s warning for taking off her shirt. And so I think that that’s one of the reasons why all of this came to bear on this match. Now, when I watched it, I thought, “Oh, what a mess,” because not only was it very hard for Serena to navigate the situation, but it really overshadowed dominant and impressive play by Naomi Osaka.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, and that’s also really important, Professor Davis, this issue of who Naomi Osaka is, who ends up crying while she’s—when she’s presented with her trophy, and people are booing. And yet you have Serena Williams, who is then hugging her, understanding exactly what this meant, this moment that’s just been such a victory for Naomi, who said Serena Williams is the reason she’s in tennis, that she’s so inspired by her. Two black women kind of pitted against each other.

AMIRA ROSE DAVIS: Precisely. And I think one of the things that has happened in the wake of this is there’s been a move in certain media headlines to paint Naomi Osaka as against Serena in some way. There’s a particularly vile racist and sexist cartoon in the Herald Sun that depicts Serena Williams as a kind of oversized, full-lipped—reminiscent of a caricature drawing of African Americans in the Jim Crow era, throwing a tantrum. And Naomi Osaka is in the background, and she has very long blonde hair, and it’s almost like she’s been whitened, whitewashed. And I think that we can’t lose fact of this point.

One of the reasons that Naomi Osaka was so emotional, as she said, after the match, is she’s a Serena fan. And she wants Serena to win. And so, she has to get out of that mindset in order to compete with her, but she said, “When Serena held me and embraced at the net, it was like I was a kid again, and I was her big fan.” And I think that that’s such a strong point. Her father, who is Haitian, got her into the sport after watching the Williams sisters and watching Richard Williams create opportunities for his black child in tennis, and he mimicked that blueprint to get Naomi into the game.

And so, very much this is part and parcel of the same thing. Naomi Osaka is not against Serena. In fact, one of the things that Serena is advocating for, to really look at the box that is placed around women athletes in terms of what emotions they can express and how tennis matches are adjudicated. That is to the benefit of players like Naomi Osaka and future players to come.

AMY GOODMAN: And just to correct, the umpire, Ramos, is Portuguese. And finally, the featuring of Serena Williams in Colin Kaepernick’s video, the video of Colin Kaepernick, the Nike video that has come out as the NFL opens and he is not signed to any team, but he’s talking about African-American women, like Serena Williams, who are, you know, the leaders in sports, breaking every record.

AMIRA ROSE DAVIS: Precisely. I mean, I think that that’s a huge point. While the conversation has really veered toward sexism in tennis, it’s really about Serena as a black woman that has prompted such a visceral reaction for many black women, because Serena symbolizes the feelings of a lot of black women in this country whose bodies are scrutinized, whose parameters for expression seem to be pretty tightened, who have dominated, who are the best at their craft and seemingly still are relegated outsiders to their profession.

And so I think that one of the reasons that the reaction was so visceral to this moment is that a lot of people identified with Serena Williams and the struggle that she’s manifesting, which is not to say that it was the frustration; it was, rather, the fact that—who is allowed to be frustrated? Who’s allowed to have outbursts? And as Serena cited, and as many male players on the circuit have come out in defense of her and said, “I have said far worse things, and I have more leeway on that end.” And so I think one of the reasons why we can tie this to Kaepernick is not only about—

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Davis, we have to end it here, but we’re doing Part 2—we’re doing Part 2 at democracynow.org. Check web exclusives. Professor Amira Rose Davis. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.