Australia’s media watchdog ruled Monday that a controversial cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams was not racist.
The Australian Press Council said that the cartoon, published last September in the Herald Sun after Williams’s loss in the U.S. Open final, did not violate the country’s press standards.
The council said that the cartoon depicted Williams “using satire, caricature, exaggeration and humor,” but acknowledged “that some readers found the cartoon offensive.”
The image showed Williams throwing a temper tantrum and stomping on her tennis racket. Nearby, the judge asks her opponent: “Can you just let her win?”
{mosads}Williams received a penalty point and game penalty during her match against Naomi Osaka after breaking her racket following a dispute with umpire Carlos Ramos. She accused Ramos of sexism for penalizing her and denied his accusation that she received coaching during the match.
The comic, by cartoonist Mark Knight, was widely criticized as racist and sexist for its depiction of Williams with exaggerated features.
“Concern was expressed that the cartoon depicted Ms. Williams with large lips, a broad flat nose, a wild afro-styled ponytail hairstyle different to that worn by Ms. Williams during the match, and positioned in an ape-like pose,” the press council said in a statement, referencing complaints made to the body about the cartoon.
“It was also noted that the cartoon should be considered in the context of the history of caricatures based on race and historical racist depictions of African-Americans,” the statement read.
Knight defended the cartoon in a statement to the newspaper last September, saying he drew it after “seeing the world’s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting.”
“The cartoon about Serena is about her poor [behavior] on the day, not about race,” he said at the time. “The world has just gone crazy.”