About eight or nine years ago, Peter “Chukku” Young was sitting on my verandah with me, and he educated me, in the sense that he made me look at something from a new, different perspective.
Peter Young’s is extraordinary story in itself, in that he left Belize on his own and, after sojourns in Jamaica and California, became a world class and world traveled accountant. I have heard people say that Chukku was Bob Marley’s accountant. Whether that was so or not, it is for sure that Peter has moved in very high circles in the Western financial world.
On Saturday morning in London, Venus Williams and her younger sister, Serena, played for the Wimbledon ladies championship in lawn tennis. This was maybe the third time there has been an all-Williams ladies final. Venus and Serena have met in the finals at eight major championships. Between them they have won a total of eighteen majors – eleven for Serena and seven for Venus. (The so-called major championships in tennis are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open.)
What Peter Young did was make me look at the sensational accomplishments of the Williams sisters from the standpoint of their father, Richard. Peter was effusive in his praise of Richard Williams, and if you know Chukku, when he is effusive, he is effusive. More than that, he made me consider the financial implications, the financial aspect of the fact that this single, uneducated black man from the projects of Compton, California, had taken two of his little daughters and made them conquer the sophisticated world of ladies tennis.
I would say that the combined first and second place money for the Wimbledon ladies finals on Saturday morning would have been probably about a million and a half in U.S. dollars. The Williams sisters are multi-millionaires many times over.
Repeatedly throughout the years from Venus’ and Serena’s childhood, Richard Williams has made decisions about their careers at which the American tennis establishment, and the American press who extol that establishment, have scoffed. To a certain extent, the American press have actually treated Richard Williams as if he is a buffoon. He certainly is a tennis outsider, which makes his daughters’ achievements all the more remarkable. The way how racism has worked in the case of Richard Williams, it is how the white tennis writers and commentators have a problem acknowledging and appreciating the genius of the man, because he was poor, black and uneducated.
Early on, Richard Williams kept his daughters out of the much ballyhooed tennis academies and they did not participate in many of the girls junior tournaments in the United States. The press criticized him often and severely, charging that he was hampering the development of the children. The Venus and Serena championships prove that Richard Williams knew what he was doing.
The ladies tennis tour probably contains a majority of lesbians. Richard Williams and his wife, Oracene, maneuvered their daughters through the modern sexual mine field without any scandals derailing their girls. You know this was some tough assignment.
At the height of Venus’ and Serena’s tennis success, Richard Williams had the girls get involved in other activities, like fashion design, acting and so on. It had been the case for many lady tennis greats, and they begin training from childhood, that they had been burning out early. Yes, when Richard diversified the Venus/Serena portfolio, the level of their play suffered, but now there has been a resurgence of the Williams in their later twenties, when contemporaries like Hingis, Henin, and Capriati have fallen by the wayside.
The biggest thing about slavery was that a black man was not a man. The white man was a man. The black man was a boy. In seeking to express and define his manhood, under the duress of slavery and then colonialism (Caribbean) and segregation (United States), the black man has made some mistakes. The biggest mistake we have made is in dealing with our paternal responsibilities. Sometimes the pressure of the financial system becomes such that we run away from our fatherhood in order to protect what is left of our manhood. And if you don’t understand what that means, try being a black man in the streets.
In this column, I have tried to share the education Peter Young gave me that day on my verandah. He made me see something from a new and important perspective. I’m sure you never really stop to think what a great man and father Richard Williams is. He accomplished what he did against the grain. All the so-called experts were criticizing him at every turn. Every time his girls experienced any kind of setback, Richard Williams came in for attacks from the tennis establishment and the press. That was good in a way, for if the father took the blame, then there was less pressure on the girls.
When Venus and Serena have to play against each other, Richard Williams cannot bear to watch. This is unfortunate in a sense, because when his two daughters meet in the finals of major world championships, that fact is the most dramatic testimony to the greatness of the father. Give respect where respect is due. Big up, Mr. Richard Williams.