Tennis star Serena Williams tweeted a stern criticism of The New York Times yesterday after the newspaper used a photo of her sister Venus to depict her in an article about her new venture fund, Serena Ventures.
CNN Business first reported about the incident after Williams tweeted:
“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough. 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. You can do better, @nytimes.”
Williams included a photo of the article ‘Serena Williams raises $111 million for new venture fund’, in her Tweet clearly showing an image of her sister Venus in her place.
The New York Times responded, “This was our mistake. It was due to an error when selecting photos for the print edition, and it did not appear online. A correction will appear in tomorrow’s paper.”
Williams did not respond to the explanation, which did not include an apology. At the time of this story’s filing, the tweet has already received 34,000 likes.
Other Twitter users were far more vocal about The New York Times’ error.
Former Black News Channel host Aisha C. Mills issued a strongly worded rebuke of the publication, tweeting, “What a piss poor response. The error in ‘selecting photos’ is that your systems think all Black people look alike. Own up to THAT. Biased algorithms, racial ignorance, and lazy editors. That’s how this happened.”
The New York Times is has joined the ranks of many other news organizations who confuse the appearance of one African American celebrity with another. Some other examples are KTLA, who mixed up Samuel L. Jackson with Laurence Fishburne in 2014, and Fox News, who published an image of Patti LaBelle while reporting on the death of Aretha Franklin in 2018.
Published: Mar 3, 2022 02:41 pm