J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Newspaper Cartoon 
 
 J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Williams Newspaper Cartoon 
 
 Breaking News 
 
 This is not good. 
 
 A newspaper in Australia is catching A LOT of heat over a cartoon that was trying to spoof Serena Williams' incident at the U.S. Open -- because it's racist as hell. 
 
 The cartoon -- drawn by Mark Knight (editorial cartoonist for the Herald Sun newspaper) -- shows the tennis superstar stomping on her racket. 
 
 But, let's get serious, it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person -- not Serena Williams. 
 
 The cartoon has been blasted by athletes and celebs including J.K. Rowling who said, "Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop." 
 
 ESPN's Jemele Hill noted the racism is "About as subtle as Fran Drescher’s voice." 
 
 So far, it doesn't seem like the Herald Sun is backing down -- they retweeted the image and haven't pulled it. 
 
 At least, not yet. 
 
 As we reported ... Serena was penalized several times during Saturday's U.S. Open finals match against Naomi Osaka. Serena went off on the judge claiming he was a "thief" who stole a point from her. 
 
 The judge then penalized Serena a game for the "verbal abuse." Williams continued to go off on the guy to other tournament officials claiming the judge would never treat a man that way. ||||| This article is over 1 month old 
 
 News Corp has come under global condemnation for publishing a racist, sexist cartoon depicting Serena Williams in its Melbourne paper. 
 
 The cartoon by Mark Knight, published in Rupert Murdoch’s Herald Sun tabloid on Tuesday, depicted the tennis star having a tantrum on the court at the US Open after she lost to Naomi Osaka on Saturday. The depiction of Osaka has also been criticised as making her appear as a “white woman”. 
 
 The way Knight drew Williams has been compared to the racist illustrations ubiquitous during the US Jim Crow era and Sambo cartoons. 
 
 Condemnation of the cartoon has come from American civil rights activist the Rev Jesse Jackson, British author JK Rowling and numerous sports broadcasters, journalists and activists. 
 
 Speaking on ABC, Knight said he had “no knowledge of those cartoons or that period” and he thought the said people were “making stuff up”. 
 
 The Serena Williams cartoon exposes Australia’s ignorance on race | Alana Lentin Read more 
 
 “I’m upset that people are offended, but I’m not going to take the cartoon down,” he said. 
 
 “I can’t undraw the cartoon. I think people have just misinterpreted. Maybe there’s a different understanding of cartooning in Australia to America … It was a cartoon based on her tantrum on the day and that’s all it was.” 
 
 The National Association of Black Journalists said the cartoon was “repugnant” on many levels. 
 
 “The Sept 10 cartoon not only exudes racist, sexist caricatures of both women, but Williams’ depiction is unnecessarily sambo-like,” the association said. 
 
 “The art of editorial cartooning is a visual dialogue on the issues of the day, yet this cartoon grossly inaccurately depicts two women of colour at the US Open, one of the grandest stages of professional sports.” 
 
 Bernice King, the chief executive of the King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, said the Herald Sun’s stance was “unfortunate”. 
 
 It was “without consideration for the painful historical context of such imagery and how it can support biases and racism today”, she said. “Why wouldn’t a human being care about that?” 
 
 Be A King (@BerniceKing) So unfortunate that this is your response; and without consideration for the painful historical context of such imagery and how it can support biases and racism today. Why wouldn’t a human being care about that? 
 
 The Washington Post noted Knight drew Williams with facial features that reflected caricatures common in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
 
 “Knight’s cartoon conjures up a range of such caricatures that were branded on memorabilia and popularized on stage and screen of the era, including the minstrel-show character Topsy born out of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, as well as the title character in 1899’s ‘Little Black Sambo’,” the article said. 
 
 In an article published by the Herald Sun, Knight said he was “amazed” at the reaction, and said his cartoon was “not about race”. 
 
 “The world has gone crazy,” he said. Knight said reaction on social media was “unfair”. 
 
 “I tried to reply to these people but they just don’t listen,” he said. “On any given day you are a hero and on any given day you are a pariah. And you just have to live with it.” 
 
 Knight had publicly replied to one person on Twitter – US sportswriter Julie DiCaro – seeking an apology for her suggestion it was sexist. 
 
 Mark Knight (@Knightcartoons) Well Julie here’s a cartoon I drew a few days before when Australian male tennis player Kyrgios at the US Open was behaving badly. Don’t bring gender into it when it’s all about behaviour. I’ll accept your apology in writing😁 pic.twitter.com/NLV0AjPGsY 
 
 
 
 The executive chairman of News Corp Australia, Michael Miller, said criticism of Knight “shows the world has gone too PC”. 
 
 Michael Miller (@mm_newscorpaus) Criticism of Mark Knight's Serena Williams cartoon shows the world has gone too PC & misunderstands the role of news media cartoons and satire. Poor behaviour in any sport needs to be called out. #media #cartoons #markknight @Knightcartoons @theheraldsun https://t.co/KQFuvIJp0Q pic.twitter.com/sRo3AQ1cJW 
 
 Editor of the Herald Sun, Damon Johnston, also defended Knight. 
 
 “A champion tennis player had a mega tantrum on the world stage, and Mark’s cartoon depicted that,” Johnston said. “It had nothing to do with gender or race.” 
 
 The Herald Sun article ended with a series of other recent Knight cartoons, but did not include one from last month about Sudanese-Australian violence in Melbourne, which also sparked accusations of racism. 
 
 Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) This is Jim Crow-racist. He Sambo’d Serena Williams. I’m a bit surprised that @Knightcartoons didn’t include a watermelon. For those unfamiliar with the history invoked here, read about the coon caricature. https://t.co/ffmrk76MRM 
 
 Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) https://t.co/LgBOr5vgkA: #SerenaWilliams shown as angry baby, #NaomiOsaka as a blonde White Woman, in controversial #USOpen cartoon from Australian newspaper & cartoonist, #HeraldSun & #MarkKnight: 
 
 
 
 .@RevJJackson @SantitaJ @Knightcartoons @theheraldsun 
 
 https://t.co/7l7gKuwtWk 
 
 J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop. https://t.co/YOxVMuTXEC 
 
 NUFF (@nuffsaidny) The saddest part about Mark Knight’s cartoon depiction of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, is that he believes that he has done nothing wrong and that everyone is overreacting and does not understand the art of caricature. Racist bigotry at its finest. 
 
 Jeanette 📺📻🎙🦊 (@JNETTEKWAKYE) No matter what you think about this situation. THIS ‘cartoon’ is disgusting on so many levels. https://t.co/ks2cZDncGS 
 
 deray (@deray) The racist cartoon re: Serena at the #USOpen is a reminder that there remains a strong appetiteand acceptance for anti-blackness in the media and in segments of society. How did that even get published? 
 
 Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) As we all head to work this week, I feel very sad for the individual and collective consciousness of Black women, which has been & will be stressed hard. https://t.co/4oBhVZS2gu 
 
 Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) The Australian cartoonist of *that* Serena cartoon has form. pic.twitter.com/n7RhMzhADG 
 
 Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) Don’t know much about the Herald Sun. DO know this Mark Knight muthafucka shouldn’t be employed anywhere on this planet. https://t.co/46g7dh797h ||||| CLOSE SportsPulse: Trysta Krick and Nancy Armour look at the complicated history between the tennis community and Serena Williams that help lead to the controversy at the US Open this past weekend and the subsequent racially insensitive cartoon depicting Williams. USA TODAY 
 
 Serena Williams breaks her racquet in frustration in the US Open final against Naomi Osaka. (Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 The artist behind a controversial and widely criticized cartoon of Serena Williams defended his depiction of Williams’ meltdown at the US Open and said it had nothing to do with race. 
 
 Mark Knight, a cartoonist for "The Herald Sun" in Australia, said in an interview Monday evening that his portrayal of Williams stomping on her racket as the chair umpire asked Naomi Osaka to let Williams win was an accurate representation of their final match. 
 
 “There’s nothing inaccurate in the cartoon, but I’m sorry it’s being taken by social media and distorted so much,” he said. 
 
 “The cartoon is about Serena, it was about her poor behavior. It had nothing to do with race.” 
 
 Author J.K. Rowling blasted the image as did numerous US media outlets. 
 
 Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop. https://t.co/YOxVMuTXEC — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 10, 2018 
 
 “People said I’m a racist because I drew Serena as an African American woman,” Knight explained. “I drew her as this powerful figure, which she is, she’s strongly built. They say I’m racist because I drew Naomi Osaka in the background with blonde hair. Well, she does have her hair dyed blonde.” 
 
 Knight said that his phone “melted down” as criticism of his portrait roiled social media all day. He also said his wife and children were subjected to threats on their Instagram pages as a result of the cartoon. 
 
 “This is how crazy it gets. It gets picked up by social media and it’s like a rolling thunder, a storm gathering intensity until it just turns into a tornado of false accusations and crazy things that aren’t even there.” 
 
 Knight defended his work and said there are previous examples of him portraying Williams in a more favorable light. 
 
 “I think these days, I don’t think you can, it’s called punching down,” he said. “You can’t punch down these days. And what that means is you can’t criticize minority groups for poor behavior. You just can’t go there. But I’m a cartoonist and I comment on all topics.”
– Serena Williams' loss to Naomi Osaka over the weekend at the US Open continues to generate headlines beyond the world of sports. One of the buzzier stories Monday concerned a cartoon—see it here—that it appeared in the Herald Sun of Australia, reports Business Insider. It depicts Williams, with exaggerated features, throwing a tantrum. In the view of TMZ, "it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person—not Serena Williams," and plenty of people agreed, including JK Rowling. "Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop," she wrote. Others found it strange that the cartoonist made Osaka and the ump white, when neither are. Related coverage: Catching up: If you missed it, Williams accused ump Carlos Ramos of being a "liar" and a "thief" for docking her a point after what he deemed to be illegal communication between Williams and her coach. As she criticized him and demanded an apology, he penalized her a full game. Williams was ultimately fined $17,000. Lost in all this: The controversy has overshadowed the win by Osaka and the 20-year-old's remarkable journey. Her mother is Japanese and her father Haitian, notes the Washington Post, which makes her Japan's first Grand Slam champ. The New York Times recently profiled her, wondering whether she can "burst Japan's expectations of what it means to be Japanese."