Tennis icon Serena Williams took a dig at The New York Times for mistaking her for her sister Venus when reporting about Serena Ventures - a firm that the athlete launched to promote equity and diversity.
In the printed article, The New York Times used a photo of Venus instead of Serena.
“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough”, Williams tweeted, commenting on the newspaper's flop. “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".
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© Photo : Twitter / @serenawilliams
NYT Business was quick to respond to Williams' grievances, admitting the 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", the paper said, responding to Williams' tweet.
The apology, however, met some sarcasm online, with people wondering how many eyes "missed" the mistake.
"What a p*ss poor response. The error in 'selecting photos' is that your systems think all Black people look alike. Own up to THAT", journalist Aisha C. Mills weighed in.
"From journalist to distribution, how many Black people had a hand in producing this piece? My guess is 0", author Secola Edwards tweeted.
The tennis star launched Serena Ventures with a "mission of giving opportunities to founders across an array of industries". Particularly, the firm raised over $100 million - which was an achievement the NYT tried to honour in order to help "early-stage startups focused on improving our daily lives through innovative products and services".