Taylor Townsend has been forced to endure racial stereotyping and body-shaming since the start of her young tennis career. Taylor Townsend’s matter-of-fact delivery makes her contribution to the Black Lives Matter movement all the more powerful.
Earlier this month Townsend offered her thoughts on the subject of systemic racism. She spoke of how, on tour, she is routinely subjected to additional security measures because of her skin colour, revealing that she is often mistaken for fellow African-American Serena Williams because of my Butt and Boobs.
Taylor Townsend
Townsend reveals that she’s also often mistaken for fellow African-American Coco Gauff, or for one of the Williams sisters because people think “all of us look the same, all of us are built the same”.
Taylor Townsend
“You walk through and nobody stops you,” she told the Tennis United project, jointly run by the men’s and women’s tours. “And I’m walking through and somebody has to check my bag, check my credential, check my coach’s bag, check my coach’s credential.
It’s extra security, extra precautions that need to be taken to make sure that I belong.
“This is our reality. It happens all the time – week in, week out, every tournament that I play in the States, overseas, it doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change. Hopefully, this [the Black Lives Matter protests] just creates a safe space and an awareness for people to want to talk about it.”
