The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Thomson Reuters 2020.Osaka surprised by impact of her call for racial justice
NEW YORK©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Thomson Reuters 2020.
48 Comments
Login to comment
ulysses
You did well Naomi, standing up to injustice is a duty!!
Spitfire
The most flaky athlete in the world.
Toasted Heretic
Why people getting upset that a woman of color can make a stand and they can do nothing about it but grumble.
Fair play to you, Naomi Osaka.
Yubaru
Yeah, and you withdrew from the semifinals of the tournament in protest too! Good for you!
Oh but wait, you decided to participate anyway, so the "protest" was what?
Oh right, "Japanese" style strike, one day, then back to normal!
Yubaru
Make a stand....see it through! Not like she needs the money!
Vince Black
Ohhhh she didn’t expect it would get so much attention. So why’d she do it then?
ulysses
When you stand against injustice and oppression, the bigots will come after you.
Stand strong Naomi, they will fall but you will not!!!
Bernard Marx
She just made sure I never watch another of her matches.
itsonlyrocknroll
Make your mind up time.
Irrespective of color or gender, is Naomi Osaka, a sportswomen or a political activist?
bass4funk
She’s 22 so I’ll give her a break. God knows I was all over the place at that age as well.
oldman_13
Indeed, the same people that are now criticizing and mocking her are the very same people that would have applauded her had she pointedly criticized how "racist" Japanese society is towards blacks and other non-Japanese people in Japan.
Good for you Naomi!
itsonlyrocknroll
With tennis and motor-racing the sponsors will dictate what is politically accessible/acceptable for there market.
ohara
Indeed, the same people that are now criticizing and mocking her are the very same people that would have applauded her had she pointedly criticized how "racist" Japanese society is towards blacks and other non-Japanese people in Japan.
And we all know she is NOT going to do that, which tells you what she is.
itsonlyrocknroll
OK let be blunt cynical and basic, tennis tournament sponsors wants their women waving their racquets in wild abandon at each other.
Give it the clenched fist BLM this, that or the other, no problem, but on 24 hour TV, no more no less.
Anything less forget it.
Ed Rowe
Some of these comments are hilariously inept...she can be a professional athlete and a spokesperson..(is there a rule against it?)
One comment wrote he wasn't gong to watch her matches anymore..do you think she cares? You can't watch basketball, hockey, baseball, or football either...good luck with that!
It's great she's trying to speak out...
Dango bong
get your focus on tennis or you will lose
Paul
Sport should not be used to advance social or political change.
ohara
Why people getting upset that a woman of color can make a stand and
You always play this angle. First of all, No one is “getting upset”, just making legitimate comments.
Enough with the ad hominems
and implication of mysoginy and racism. Its like a broken revirs.
ohara
Sure she will miss one less racist watching her matches
First, its not racism, secondly its not only one viewer. You can bet Osaka’s hypocritical bandwagoning has turned off a lot of her audience. And you can judge in fact how important that audience is to Osaka by the fact that she doesnt and will not call out racism in Japan. No surprise there because shes a hypocrite.
>
Peter Neil
A couple of questions:
Does she consider herself to be oppressed?
Is she only oppressed in the US or does she consider herself to be oppressed in Japan also?
ReasonandWisdomNippon
I'm a fan of Naomi Osaka.
I want her to see play tennis more than focus on politics back in the USA.
You choose Japan as your country not America, yet many of the people you look up too, people you like or want to date are all Americans, people of color.
Guess the half Japanese side not as important as the black side.
You know Asians have been attacked in the thousands around the world, blamed for COVID19.
Haven't seen you say or do anything, no action taken there on your part. You act more black, care more about black issues than anything that has to do with Japan.
Jax
Have I missed any news about the fact that there is an actual targeting of black people and mass shootings of them on the spot?
I find it rather disturbing what is being done to the language today. Some of the definitions being hijacked and used for a phenomenon that would have never been described like that in the past.
Today everybody is a Nazi, or a fascist both on the left and right , and everybody is commuting genocide, whether its the left with their abortions or the right with their gun laws...
theFu
Seems like a good use of her celebrity.
Not during the sport, but before and after, away from the venue, yes it should! Embarrassing a country is a good way to get change, provided it doesn't lead to death and killing.
ulysses
A 17 year old bigot loser shooting people randomly, and a 22 year winner showing compassion.
Two worlds so far apart!!!
ulysses
It is racism and a couple of bigoted viewers won’t bother her.
Bigots might scream loud, it’s just because they don’t have anything else going on in their heads.
Nippori Nick
Uh, she can be both. Hey, she can do lots of things.
Mr Kipling
She makes a stand until she doesn’t. Some issues are important but not as important as world ranking points and the money they bring. She left japan due to racism....She could have taken a stance on her nationality but Japanese sponsors had too much cash.
If Hypocrisy was an Olympic sport Ms Osaka would be a medal contender.
philly1
Exactly, Nippori Nick. A person can be a multitude of things. Often that's what exceptional people are--multifaceted in their gifts.
bass4funk
Bigots or not, they don’t have to watch her, no sweat off their backs and she can do what she wants, no sweat off her back, both have the right as Americans to express themselves the way they want.
bearandrodent
Is that a Uniqlo BLM shirt?
Desert Tortoise
The comments above are a full frontal display of much of what is wrong in the US and other nations today. Reading the above is depressing. People are letting petty hatreds overwhelm their humanity and this will only lead to more violence, more suffering and economic stagnation. When people of a nation turn against each other internally nothing good comes out of it. Reading the comments above make me less than hopeful about our future. Now let the mods "moderate" my comment for being "off topic", lol. They always do.
ohara
A 17 year old bigot loser shooting people randomly,
Completely unfactual.
Mickelicious
Naomi Osaka and Lewis Hamilton respectively are the best thing that's happened for them in ages.
Be we right, left or a different place in between from one day to the next, we all know racism is moronic.
starpunk
She's technically of two colors. And ever hear the American racist cliche 'Give them an inch, they want a mile'? Stupid, isn't it?
I'm glad that Naomi Osaka is standing up for herself and others against all this horsecrap.
JeffLee
I'm getting really tired of the media coverage of her and her moaning. She's ranked, like, 10th in the ATP, and gets all hype and all the money - over the past year she was the highest-paid female woman in history for a single year. Yeah, must be tough. The system is really stacked against you and people like you, right?.
If it's racial injustice you're really concerned about, how about mentioning how your Japanese grandparents kicked you and your family out of the house because of your race? And how your family decided to flee Japan for America, where they knew life would be much much better for people like you? As it so clearly has been.
ulysses
The bigots claim they will stop watching, following Naomi. But they seem obsessed enough to keep posting about her.
Bigots are not very smart!
bass4funk
Thank you, couldn’t agree more.
Ted Uchida
There is no doubt that there is racism. At the same time, just because a Black man with a warrant out for his arrest for 3 charges including sexual assault is shot after forcefully resisting arrest, including being tased twice and attacking an officer, and told to drop the knife that he had, does NOT mean that this was an act of racism. The police were requested to be there, presumably by his Black girlfriend, because there was a disturbance. Racism is when Senator Scott, a Black man, is stopped for no reason. These knee jerk reactions to every Black man resisting arrest and getting shot is ridiculous. Then the protests go up of "no justice, on peace." How uneducated. There is a criminal justice system. If there is a crime committed, it will be investigated and prosecuted. The mobs out in the streets essentially aren't willing to let the system do its job. Some of them are out trying to kill police. They are not that far removed from the days when Blacks were lynched by mobs. Osaka is just another uneducated, uninformed member of the mobs. She may not be out there protesting in the streets, but she's essentially saying that she does not believe in democracy and the U.S. constitution. Listen to the thoughtful ones out there like Mr. Floyd's brother, the Atlanta mayor, and Robert Woods of the LA Rams. All are Blacks who know getting hysterical with these protests will not produce real change. They have all told everyone that if they want change, they need to VOTE!
Paul
It seems that blacks want to be more equal than equal. They want to do anything they want and the rest should just accept it as the black thing to do, like not stopping when told to stop by police, because they are black and don't need to listen to anybody and if anyone complains, they are racist...