Member-only story
White America’s Problem with Black Fatherhood and King Richard
This world ain’t ever had no respect for Richard Williams but they gone respect y’all.
-Will Smith as Richard Williams in King William
People who write think pieces, and write on the internet and social media, will always find something to argue about. It’s inevitable.
But, here we are, and people, well white feminists, are mad that a movie about the lives of tennis superstars, Venus and Serena Williams, “centers” their father, Richard Williams, instead of them.
There will be other movies, I’m certain, made about the lives of Venus and Serena Williams in the years to come.
But, this movie is about Richard Williams. First things first, the movie is titled King Richard and has been heralded as a possible Oscar contending role for star, Will Smith. The film has been in the works since 2019, and over the last few years, short clips of the Williams sisters as children have been floating around the internet and in Nike commercials, with their father almost always in the background.