Serena Williams gets real about race and reaction to her US Open blow-up in a new interview with GQ Magazine.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion graces the GQ cover as the magazine's Woman of the Year.
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In the Q & A with writer Jeanne Marie Laskas, Williams says public reaction to her clash with chair umpire Carlos Ramos during her US Open loss to Naomi Osaka was a "trigger moment." Read Serena's GQ Magazine interview here.
Williams says society puts black women "at the bottom of the totem pole."
"You do research on how black women, you know, in the workforce are, there's literally papers about it, how black women are treated if they're angry, as opposed to white women, white men, black men," Serena told GQ. "It is bottom of the bottom of the totem pole."
Serena tells GQ American culture slams strong women who display powerful emotion and points to contrasting public reaction to her US Open outburst and the flashes of temper judge Brett Kavanaugh displayed during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before Senate.
"Kavanaugh's a white man," Serena told GQ. "I'm a black woman. His limit is higher. My limit is way lower. And that's where we stand right now in this world. And it's a fact. It is literally a fact. If you don't believe anything I say, just look at those two examples."
The 37-year-old Serena said she went into a self-imposed media bubble in the aftermath of her US Open implosion because she was tired of reading about it on social media.
"I don't really remember how it went, to be honest," Williams told GQ. "I've been purposely not thinking about it. I don't watch TV at all. I try to keep myself in a bubble as much as I can. I just don't want to be involved in other people's opinions. Let them live how they want to feel."
Photo credit: GQ Magazine