Black Conspiracy Theories 101: Did Serena Say ‘A White Man Is The Only Real Choice For A Successful Black Female?’

On December 6, 2004, an alleged interview appeared involving tennis mega-superstar Serena Williams (pictured) that mysteriously flooded e-mail inboxes everywhere.  The question and answer printed dialogue depicted Williams as a self-hating individual who put Black men down by making explosive statements about them such as, “They [Black men] will be obsolete in 10 years…once artificial insemination has become as common and accessible as the flu shot.” But the comment that picked up the most steam was her allegedly saying, “A White man is the only choice for a successful Black female.”  Almost immediately, the e-mail became viral, but did the interview actually take place or was it the stuff of urban legends?

The mysterious Williams’ interview prompted radio call-ins, debates, e-mails, letters, and news reports, with people being up-in-arms as to why Williams would make such inflammatory statements about men of her own race.

But there was more.

The following statement was attached to the tennis dynamo as well:

I dated Black men.  I loved many of them but they were not suitable for marriage.  Many of them were raised by women with warped mentalities.  So I had to date outside my race.

…

The secret organization of women is waiting for the day when men are 100 percent dis-empowered.

I hope Oprah makes the choice to marry a non-black man soon so she can have a child of her own.

To those who believed that Williams was a Black male-basher, they were dead WRONG. The interview was a fake and the comments that were purported to belong to Williams were conjured up. As to who created the fake interview or why, it still remains a mystery to this very day.

Williams’ publicist at the time, Raymone K. Bane, adeptly hopped on the defamatory and slanderous story and spun Williams out of a situation that could have maligned her permanently. Bane issued a press release pronto about the hoax that stated:

Serena Williams has not conducted and would not, under any circumstance, conduct such an interview. We are making every attempt to find the source of the hoax.

Incensed about the hoax, Williams then provided her own statement:

Words cannot express how upset I am to find out that someone has deliberately attempted to ruin my reputation and image, says Ms. Williams. I would never, ever, under any circumstance, be so disrespectful. Whoever decided to write this garbage does not know Serena Williams. It is not my thinking nor my being. I want to find out who is behind this, and have them prosecuted within the fullest extend of the law. I am hoping that there will be more policing over the Internet, in order to find out immediately the origin of this kind of treachery. No one deserves to be humiliated and defamed this way.

Serena, the haters could never make you fall from grace, keep doing what you do!