Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
When you’re a #GirlDad like me, you want daughters like Coco Gauff. Sure, she’s a world-class athlete and champion tennis player, but that’s not the part I’m talking about.
We want our girls and young women to grow adept at social self-defense, prepared for the seemingly inevitable moments when they’re publicly disrespected in a majority-white space. Maybe it’s in a corporate office that has few colored faces. Maybe it’s on campus at a predominately white institution.
Or maybe it’s in Dubai during a recorded match with a scene that went viral.
Ranked No. 3 in the world, Gauff lost her quarterfinal match Thursday at the Dubai Tennis Championships. But she made us exceedingly proud the previous day when she didn’t lose her composure, not only winning the match but giving a master class on speaking truth to power when power won’t listen.
Chair umpire Pierre Bacchi was “that guy” Wednesday, the one who doesn’t hear you because he keeps talking over you. The one who makes a mistake but can’t bring himself to admit it. The one who denies you common courtesy or professional privilege.
Bacchi made a bad call and compounded his miscue with a bad ruling midway through Gauff’s victory against Karolina Plíšková. Gauff was all we’d hope for in dealing with the umpire — respectful but firm, considerate but adamant — before eventually taking the rightful step that’s available to all.
She asked to speak with Bacchi’s manager, in this case, the tournament supervisor.
He refused, which is wilder than a waiter denying that request from a patron.
“You can’t tell me the rule,” Gauff told Bacchi during a nearly five-minute disagreement. “If I’m questioning the rule, you have to call the supervisor. That’s my right and I know it is. Call…
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