Something Odd

I ran across something odd.

From The New York Times January 24, 1998:

Headline: TENNIS; Majoli Blunders Her Way to an Early Exit

That's an article about the 1998 Australian Open. And, way down at the bottom of it, we find this tacked on!

Nonheadline: "Apology to Spirlea"

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 23 (AP) -- Richard Williams, the father of the teen-age tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, has recanted his charge that there is racism on the WTA Tour. Williams, speaking by phone Thursday from his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., also apologized to the Romanian Irina Spirlea for calling her ''a big, tall, white turkey'' after she bumped Venus at the United States Open semifinals in September.

''I love Irina Spirlea,'' Williams said. ''I don't see any prejudice at all. I met with her and apologized for making a stupid statement.''

"Big, tall, white, turkey," eh? Has Richard Williams ever looked at Venus?

Sheesh.

I don't have to impersonate an omniscient God who reads minds to know that calling Irina "a big, tall, white turkey" -- wait. The Times leaves out the ugly word ugly.

So, let's correct the Times. He called her "a big, ugly, tall, white turkey." And I don't need to read minds to know that this racist and sexist slur was motivated by racism and sexism.

Richard Williams' own words testify against him on that charge.

But he had no such evidence against Spirlea when he impersonated an omniscient God who knows what people are thinking and accuses them of thought crimes.

So, that's not my question.

My question is that if he committed the offense in September during the US Open, why did he wait until January during the Australian Open to apologise and recant?

Over the phone???

He attacked Spirlea's reputation in public, so he should have recanted and apologised in public.

I want to know who called whom? Did Richard Williams call Robin Finn of The New York Times to make this wonderful apology and recantation? Or did Finn just call him, in hopes for some controversial stuff to liven up his copy with?

Was this "recantation" therefore actually just an "Oh, by the way..."

And why did the New York Times bury the story so that no one knows that Spirlea's accuser ate his words, so that restoration of her good name has not been made?

People have a right to their good name. And it's time some folks learned a little respect for that human right.

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