Three Australian football (American soccer) players from the Penguin Football Club thought it was funny to dress in blackface as tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams.
This racist act was part of their end-of-season celebration called “Mad Monday.” The third player dressed as Kenyan-born American Rules Football player Aliir Aliir, according to HuffPost.
“Some Australians still have no clue what is considered racist,” Twitter user Francis Gonzalez wrote on Tuesday. “This Mad Monday “costume” is clearly racist. And I’m a person who is fed up with today’s over-the-top political correctness.”
It’s hard to believe that in 2018, some Australians claim to have no idea what is considered racist. Seriously? Anyone with at least one eye and a brain can see that the way they dressed at the Mad Monday event is clearly racist.
Recently, Serena Williams made news when she confronted the Umpire at the US Open after he accused her of cheating. This is actually the second racist incident in the past two weeks to come out of Australia targeting the Williams sisters.
Mark Knight, a cartoonist for the Herald Sun in Melbourne, drew a caricature of Serena last week depicting her as angry and out of control black woman after her loss against Naomi Osaka. Many have criticized it and call it what it is, racist and sexist.
According to HuffPost, the Penguin Football Club says it didn’t know ahead of time that the trio would wear blackface for their costumes, but their behavior was “unacceptable in this day and age.”
The Penguins also added that all three were reprimanded but their “actions were never intended to be racist in any way,” adding that “all they meant to do was dress as one of their sporting idols.”
You should see my side eye at that last comment.
Check out the photo and tell us what you think: