- Naomi Osaka has dropped out of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, in protest of police violence.
- The 22-year-old tennis superstar was scheduled to meet Elise Mertens in the semi-finals Thursday at 11 a.m. but posted a note announcing her decision not to play late Wednesday night.
- In a statement posted on Twitter, Osaka wrote that “seeing the persistent genocide of Black people by the police makes me honestly sick to my stomach.”
- Her decision comes after protests erupted across the country in light of Sunday night’s police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who shot Kenosha, Wisconsin officers seven times for his three children.
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Naomi Osaka is the latest athlete to take a stand against police violence in America.
The fourth-ranked tennis superstar has dropped out of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, in protest of police shootings of Jacob Blake and countless others. The 22-year-old was scheduled to meet No. 14 Elise Mertens in the semifinals Thursday at 11 a.m., but posted a note announcing her decision not to play on Twitter late Wednesday night.
REUTERS / Stringer
“Before I was an athlete, I was a black woman,” Osaka wrote. “And as a black woman, I feel like there are much more important things at hand that need immediate attention, instead of me watching tennis play.”
“I don’t expect anything drastic to happen to me without playing, but if I can start a conversation in a majority white sport, I consider that a step in the right direction,” she added.
Her decision comes after protests erupted across the country in light of the police shooting on Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black man who shot Kenosha, Wisconsin, officers for his three children. Blake survived and is in stable condition despite taking seven bullets to the back, but the 29-year-old is now paralyzed from the waist down.
“Looking at the ongoing genocide of Black people at the hands of the police makes me honestly sick to my stomach,” Osaka wrote. “I’m tired of showing a new hashtag every few days and I’m very tired of having the same conversation over and over again.”
Osaka is following the lead of players in the NBA, WNBA and MLS who have opted to walk away from competition on Wednesday in response to ongoing police violence against Black Americans. The Milwaukee Bucks began the players’ strike by refusing to play their playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday afternoon, and became the first team to take such action. Later, players for the Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers all forced the postponement of their games, followed by WNBA and MLS players.
One of the brightest young stars of tennis, Osaka has spoken out about racial injustice and police brutality in the United States in the wake of George Floyd’s death. As the daughter of a Haitian father and Japanese mother, she has spoken publicly about her own personal brushes with racism and has tried to use her platform to raise awareness of such issues.
View Osaka’s full statement below:
-NaomiOsaka @naomiosaka @naomiosaka August 27, 2020
