Racing nowhere, disgracing dialogue

The U.S. Open has officially begun.

Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters are colliding in the press yet again, before possibly meeting on court in the later rounds of the tournament.

The edge of New York City always seems to bring out the feisty side of Hingis, who -- current struggles aside -- has been an extremely consistent performer at Flushing Meadows over the years, reaching the final in three of the last four years and coming one do-nothing overhead (against Venus Williams, no less, in last year's semis) from making it four straight finals.

The sparring between the little white Swiss Miss, a picture of European polish, and the kids from Compton always ignites the tensions of their ongoing rivalry.

Forget the fact that Hingis' superficial smoothness gives way to a shocking carelessness and a downright childish immaturity; also forget that the Williamses, their attitude, and father Richard (which some think to be one and the same thing) often hide considerable learnedness and eloquence.

With Martina and the Williams clan, image, perception and stereotypes carry the day. The catfights they have (and have had) on the courts are fantastic -- partly because they don't like each other and desperately want to destroy each other. The beauty of their competition, however, is cancelled out by their equally ugly bouts in the press, especially about subjects other than tennis.

Consider the latest verbal bombshell from Hingis, recently reported in a Time magazine article.

Talking about the Williams sisters, Hingis told Time reporter Joel Stein that "Being black only helps them. Many times they get sponsors because they are black. And they have had a lot of advantages because they can always say, 'It's racism.' They can always come back and say, 'Because we are this color, things happen.'"

Williams, upon being told that Hingis essentially stuck by her words, had this to offer: "As for being black and getting more endorsements because I'm black, I wouldn't know anything about that. All I know is I get endorsements because I win and work hard."

If image, perception and stereotypes had nothing to do with the war of words between Hingis and the Williamses -- in other words, if the content of all quotes from both sides could be taken for what they are and be read objectively, and unemotionally -- some significant truths would emerge.

First, consider Hingis' comments.

To say that the skin color of Venus and Serena Williams had nothing to do with their endorsement deals would be naive. After all, Tiger Woods -- legend in his own time that he is -- got a $40 million endorsement package from Nike before winning one major tournament. Being able to sell a country-club game to minorities -- expanding the market -- was, is and will be a factor in the sports biz. The Williamses did -- and still do -- represent a part of this dynamic.

Going beyond the larger questions of race, Richard Williams himself has stirred up the drink on race issues, inside and outside the WTA Tour, on more than one occasion, since his daughters regularly began playing on the pro circuit.

How much was the Willamses' skin color responsible for their endorsement deals?

That's a different question, and a different issue altogether. The stupidity in Hingis' remarks lay in her clear inference that being black was only an advantage for the Williamses, and that it has largely carried the Williamses to the prominence they enjoy today. For Hingis to walk onto American soil and cast blackness as nothing but a social and cultural plus in American society shows a profound (or unprofound, as it were) ignorance about the subtle racism that still eats away at black people.

Furthermore, someone as controversial as Hingis, who has a well-established reputation for shooting from the hip without fully understanding the meaning of what she says, is not qualified to speak on the politically charged issues of race.

Beyond that, someone as immature as Hingis, whose tantrums on court and arguments with her mother have made her a thoroughly ungracious athlete at times (she can be charming, but Hingis can't seem to leave well enough alone in this respect), should be concentrating on her own values, her own ethics, her own sense of honor and decency in the global marketplace and the human arena of competitive athletics.

In closing the book on Martina Hingis -- for now -- let this be said: her lack of political correctness is refreshing; however, any welcome elements of her frankness are overwhelmed by her lack of status and authority on the issues she often talks about in relation to the Williamses.

In addition to that, the lack of historical depth and objective balance in Hingis' remarks only serve to further erode what little credibility she has, causing her remarks to boomerang back in her face.

Now, what to make of Serena's remarks about getting endorsements by winning and working hard?

As established earlier, blackness had some part in getting the Williams sisters the endorsement deals they initially got. How great a role? Again, that's another conversation; but to say that race was completely irrelevant seems to fly in the face of logic.

Despite that reality, what is indeed true is that the Williamses have continued to build on that foundation and increase the amount and scope of their endorsements by winning. With Serena winning the U.S. Open and Venus winning two Wimbledons to complement last year's Open, the Williamses have fulfilled a measure of their potential and command even more attention in the women's tennis business. Serena's words, then, hold much more truth than Hingis' comments. More than that, they hold more truth in the currency of public opinion. This reveals one central fact: Serena Williams is smarter -- in letters and on the street -- than Martina Hingis.

This intelligence, this savvy, does hide an X-factor in this whole conversation about race, Hingis and the Williamses. It's a factor that isn't apparent in Serena's words themselves -- go back and read them -- but which emanates from the Williamses themselves, including and especially Richard. It's this factor that makes these sensitive media wars the contests of image-making and stereotype reinforcement they are.

It's the 'tude, man.

Serena Williams smartly -- and very correctly -- says that she and her sister have prospered because of what they've earned. "Winning and working hard," she says. Ah, but what does that imply?

It implies, among other things, that beyond winning, the Williamses have won the right way, including and especially from an emotional perspective. Serena's words imply that she and Venus, under Richard's very public watch and far-reaching tutelage, have been professional to the hilt, accommodating to the rest of the tennis community, and mindful of fans. One could name other things that also go under the banner of "winning and working hard."

Yet, the record shows that, on numerous occasions, the Williams sisters and Richard -- with Richard actually leading the way -- have created controversy rather than avoiding it. Such was the case at the Indian Wells (Calif.) WTA Tour stop earlier this year, the biggest non-major event in women's tennis outside the Ericsson Open in March and the late-season Sanex Championships in the fall.

Serena and Venus were set to play in a semifinal until just before the match, when a stunned crowd learned firsthand that Venus, reportedly due to right knee tendonitis, had defaulted.

Why Venus didn't decide to retire earlier, no one knew. Why Team Williams didn't give the fans advance notice, no one could understand. Why King Richard did anything and everything to legitimize suspicions about conspiracies in all-Williams matches -- not to mention raising eyebrows about the overextended and eerily controlling role he seems to have in his daughters' lives -- no one could even begin to guess.

It didn't surprise anyone, then, that even though Compton -- the hometown of the Williams daughters -- is close to Indian Wells, the crowd ferociously booed Serena in the final of the tournament. Afterwards, Serena -- a victim more than a perpetrator, to be sure -- was shaken by the experience.

Richard, who essentially caused the whole sorry episode by either intentionally stage managing in a bad way or unintentionally failing to stage manage in a good way, had this to say: "I think Indian Wells disgraced America."

In other words, America is still racist, big-time, against blacks.

See the implications of Serena's words in a clearer light? "Winning and working hard." Ah yes, we the ever-professional, ever-classy, and ever-above-board Williamses, who would NEVER cover anything up or never display any attitude, earn all we have by being good and nothing but.

It's as though Serena wants race to be a completely irrelevant issue, including and especially when the Williams' financial success is under question. Maybe that is indeed true.

Yet, on the other hand, Richard views race to be an extremely and continuously harmful influence on his daughters, the culprit whenever something controversial or negative appears in the press about his daughters. The Williamses -- orchestrated or not, and who knows with this family? -- seem to be wanting it both ways on race.

It's ironic, then, that the attitude of the Williams family -- not without its abrasiveness, not without its bluntness, and certainly not without Richard, the undisputed leader and string-puller -- makes it hard for questions and tensions surrounding race to disappear from the picture.

The Williamses want race to be irrelevant; yet, by their actions and their 'tude -- specifically Richard's -- they only serve to perpetuate a corrosive dead-end discussion of race, a sorry dialogue -- if it can even be called as such -- annually revived by Martina Hingis at the start of the U.S. Open.

If Richard would only shut up and take care to present himself and his daughters in a markedly kinder and gentler light, I wouldn't be here trying to analyze the unspoken implications of Serena Williams' remarks. Moreover, I wouldn't be here assessing the stupidity of Martina Hingis' remarks, because -- with better behavior from Richard -- the Swiss Miss might never have been compelled to comment on this subject.

Leave the discussions on race to thoughtful citizens and to the inner-city communities in America that need real healing. As for the Williamses and Martina Hingis, save your battles for the court; respect, class and professionalism in post-match press conferences and other forums would be appreciated as well.

A rivalry off the court between Hingis and Team Williams will only serve to make their on-court rivalry more clouded by racially charged sentiments. It would be a good career move -- and a good social move as well -- for all parties to stop talking about things they're not qualified to discuss, and focus on one thing on or off the court -- how to produce beautiful tennis.