Michael Phelps shouted out Young Jeezy and Lil’ Wayne at the Olympic games while Ryan Locke rocked an iced out custom grill made by rapper Paul Wall. However, it’s Serena Williams who is taking heat for Crip-walking following her gold-medal earning win over the weekend.
Surprise, surprise, it’s a writer from Fox Sports offering the judgment:
Then the 30-year-old who will end her career as one of the greatest tennis players of all time did something that could be interpreted two ways: As a stupid and insensitive celebration that dampened the crowning moment, or as a joy-filled nod to her roots.
The woman who grew up in Compton did the Crip Walk.
For the uninitiated, the Crip Walk is a funky little hip-hop dance move made famous by Crip gang members in Compton in the 1970s.
And there was Serena — the tennis legend, the winner of 14 individual Grand Slams, the best player of her generation, the American girl being crowned at the All-England Club as the queen of tennis — Crip-Walking all over the most lily-white place in the world.
You couldn’t help but shake your head. It was as if Serena just couldn’t seem to avoid dipping into waters of controversy even as she’d ascended to the top of her sport.
“It was just me. I love to dance,” she told a swarm of reporters afterward – every single one of them white. “I didn’t know what else to do. I was so happy, and next thing I know I started dancing and moving. I didn’t plan it. It just happened.”
She was pleading ignorance. She knew that even associating the word “Crip” with a gold-medal performance could be toxic to her image, even if the dance itself is now distanced from those gang roots. A reporter asked what the dance was called. “The Serena?” the reporter suggested. “The Wimbledon?”
Serena just stared at the ground, embarrassed.
“Actually, there is a name. But I don’t know if I — it’s inappropriate,” she dodged. “It’s just a dance we do in California.”
To be fair, I’ve seen complaints and praises elsewhere, too.
YOUR SPIN: Wah, wah, wah to his complains or do you think Serena was in the wrong?
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