Tennis champion Serena Williams has come under fire on social media, once again, after a video surfaced showing her wearing makeup and hair that many fans say makes her look white.
Critics quickly targeted her husband, Alexis Ohanian, alleging that he is influencing her appearance.
A 15-second clip that has popped up on the X platform shows the couple sitting next to each other at their daughter’s “Nutcracker” recital in Florida.
Alexis is dressed in a red and black tuxedo from the production and is in the background of the video, slumped over and tired. Serena is sporting a blond wig, her hair pinned up in an updo, and she is wearing a black leotard underneath a full dress.
The 23-time Grand Slam women’s single titleholder is posing and fussing with her hair in the footage, showing off her bright reddish-plum full lips, bushy dark brown eyebrows, and a seemingly too-light foundation.
Immediately, social media went off, wondering if something was wrong with the Compton native.
“Nah what is going on with Serena? This is crazy man,” one person who tweeted the video wrote.
Nah what is going on with Serena? This is crazy man pic.twitter.com/HUiWzDgsqR
— Woodz 🇺🇸 (@Nibiru1000) November 26, 2024
Another said, “Looks like White Chicks!”
A third comment stated, “The Bluest Eye Syndrome. She will be white in 3 years like Michael Jackson.”
“She went from black to passing,” one person joked. Another replied, “She look like she passed.”
The conversation then took a nasty turn, with people stating that her husband of seven years is at the root of it all, calling it “The White Husband Effect.”
“I don’t think people understand that submissive women take on the traits of their husband. She literally has a white mind now,” one person said, adding, “She’s lost, fellas.”
Others came to Alexis’ defense, tweeting, “Don’t blame this on the color of her husband’s skin, she’s the breadwinner in that household and GOAT at her profession, so this just tells me this is how she’s felt all along, tbh.”
SMH that’s nuts
— Woke AF LikeYat. Some call me JDub. (@TameDoe) November 26, 2024
This controversy isn’t new; fans have often speculated about Alexis’ impact on Serena’s life choices, accusing him of steering her image to align more closely with Eurocentric look since they married in 2017.
These perceptions have been amplified every time Serena appears in campaigns or photos with lighter makeup and long blond wings, igniting debates about her identity and self-perception.
Sometimes, fans come to her defense and say that she may have gotten lighter over the years because she doesn’t go out in the sun as much as she did as a kid playing tennis.
Others claim she is merely altering her looks to fit in with the people she is most around.
Still, when Serena was recently featured on the cover of Essence magazine, it showed that her skin was still brown.
While the backlash continues to swirl, Alexis’ role as a father paints a different picture of his intentions.
Recently, he has been celebrating his “Papa pancakes,” where he makes little Black ballerina pancakes for his eldest daughter Olympia. He also has made some for his daughter Adira.
A video on Serena’s Instagram shows that he helps the girls learn their letters by making breakfast dollar pancakes and spelling out their names.
These gestures, paired with his vocal support for his wife’s career and individuality, contrast sharply with allegations that he wants to diminish her identity. He has spoken out about being married to an African-American woman and what he sees his role as in being the WYN cosmetics owner’s spouse.
“I’ve had a front row seat to exactly how different it is and how much she’s toiled not only as a woman, but as a Black woman,” he said in a CNN interview about her hard it is for her in business.
In the same article, he also talked about the abuse he wife has encountered as a woman and Black person, noting the “damage it can cause,” according to Don Riddell, who wrote the article.
Alexis says, “I don’t know how she does it.”
Serena herself has said in an interview with Andscape that she has been “scrutinized” since “a very young age” about her not only being “Black” but being “confident.” But this energy came from her white commentators and reporters. Now the hostility is coming from people that look like her.
Whether she has lightened her skin or wants to be white because of her white husband is something that the public will most likely never know. What will never be in dispute is that she is living her life on her own terms and she is a Black woman — and as an athlete one of the greatest of all times.
