Serena Williams called on The New York Times to 'do better' after they mistakenly published a photo of her sister in an article
- Serena Williams' venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, raised $111 million in its inaugural fund.
- In a story about the raise, the NY Times included a mislabeled photo of Williams' sister, Venus.
Serena Williams is one of the most recognizable athletes in the sports world.
And even she — the 23-time Grand Slam champion widely regarded as the greatest competitor her sport has ever seen — is still "overlooked."
Williams' venture capital firm — Serena Ventures — announced Tuesday that it had raised a whopping $111 million in its inaugural effort to accrue capital. But when The New York Times featured an article on the impressive raise in the "Business Day" section of Wednesday's print edition, Williams was perplexed to see a photo of her sister, Venus Williams, mislabeled with her own name.
She then flagged the mistake to her 10.7 million Twitter followers and called on the leading publication to "do better."
"No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it's not enough," Williams wrote. "This is why I raised $111M for @serenaventures. To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked."
During an appearance on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" the following day, Williams explained that she's gotten used to incidents like the Times' photo mishap throughout her illustrious, decades-long tennis career.
"Honestly, me playing tennis and a sport that has been predominantly white — especially when I first started — you can't allow yourself to get too upset about those things and emotionally take that home," she said. "Especially if you're a mom or you have a family. It's definitely not something you want to be involved in."
"You have to just... say something about it, like I did, and let it go," Williams added.
Upon announcing its inaugural fund, Serena Ventures laid out its mission to invest in "a future in which historically overlooked people and markets are empowered for a more inclusive economy."
The fact that even one of the most successful athletes ever can still be publicly mistaken for her also-famous sister further underscores the need to uplift underrepresented communities in business and beyond, Williams told Noah.
"For me, it was really just about letting people know that this is why I started this fund," she said of her tweet to The New York Times. "Because there's still... things that need to happen to grow upon."
Check out their full interview below: