Serena and Venus Williams have many things in common — they’re both tennis champions, tour de forces in various industries, and fierce and hardworking competitors, just to name a few. And while they are sisters, they’re not identical, yet The New York Times mistakenly printed a picture of Venus in an article about Serena.
The story covered Serena’s new venture fund, Serena Ventures, for which she recently raised $111 million. According to the article, Serena “will invest in founders with diverse points of view” and “is already an active angel investor with a portfolio of 60 companies that includes SendWave, MasterClass and Daily Harvest.”
However, Serena was quick to call out the publication for its misstep.
“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough,” she shared on Twitter. “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.”
The Times’ Business account responded to the tweet, saying that the mistake was on them and a correction will be printed in their March 3 paper. They also made sure to mention that the mistake occurred solely in the print version.
This is the latest example of a news outlet confusing Black people. According to CNN Business, a KTLA journalist apologized to Samuel L. Jackson in 2014 for mistaking him for Laurence Fishburne. In 2018, Fox News used a photo of Patti LaBelle in a tribute to the late Aretha Franklin. And in 2019, Australian publication WHO magazine used another Black woman’s image in a feature about model Adut Akech.
