Man, if Serena Williams doesn't have every black chick walking around with her head held up extra high, twitching her waist just a little bit more, and doing the George Jefferson up and down the hallways at work.
Williams reigns supreme on and off the tennis court, and the enormity of her success was captured in a beautifully worded essay at the New York Times, in which writer Claudia Rankine described what this means for Williams, the sport of tennis and the continuation of a tradition called black excellence:
Imagine you have won 21 Grand Slam singles titles, with only four losses in your 25 appearances in the finals. Imagine that you've achieved two "Serena Slams" (four consecutive Slams in a row), the first more than 10 years ago and the second this year. A win at this year's U.S. Open would be your fifth and your first calendar-year Grand Slam—a feat last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988, when you were just 6 years old. This win would also break your tie for the most U.S. Open titles in the Open era, surpassing the legendary Chris Evert, who herself has called you "a phenomenon that once every hundred years comes around." Imagine that you're the player John McEnroe recently described as "the greatest player, I think, that ever lived."
Imagine that, despite all this, there were so many bad calls against you, you were given as one reason video replay needed to be used on the courts. Imagine that you have to contend with critiques of your body that perpetuate racist notions that black women are hypermasculine and unattractive. Imagine being asked to comment at a news conference before a tournament because the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpischev, has described you and your sister as "brothers" who are "scary" to look at. Imagine.
The piece reminded everyone of Williams' greatness, and her ability to dust the haters off her shoulders and keep it pushing. In short, Williams' #BlackGirlMagic is rubbing off on everybody. Black women on Twitter have been flossing their magic all around town in recent weeks since people realized that so many black women are gracing the covers of September magazine issues (the most coveted issue of the year). And Williams' excellence just added fuel to that #blackgirlmagic fire.
https://twitter.com/slb79/status/636168679491784704https://twitter.com/MichelleChisolm/status/636194308215848965https://twitter.com/chasityscooper/status/631116715049512960https://twitter.com/Vanessa_KDeLuca/status/633826729031794689
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up those photos that seem to suggest Williams and Drake may have rekindled their old flame. Just look at the way they were exchanging smiles and flirty expressions while she was sitting on the tennis court in a video captured by a bystander. If you ask me, he's smitten with that girl. He's hasn't missed a match in weeks. Dare I say, he seems to truly adore her.
Serena Williams is winning. Let us all bask in this moment.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.