Virginia Wade calls Bencic "great white hope"

[martinezownsclay]

She is lucky she isn't more famous outside Britian or this was before the ultra woke era, because wow the heat she would get in for that one comment:

While I would not call her an overt racist, given that she has said a ton of negative things about the Williams sisters and even Garrison when she played over the years, a comment like this makes me wonder if she might not be a low key racist of sorts.

 

[Mustard]

I can imagine the outrage from the PC brigade if they saw old British sitcoms, like On the Buses, Love Thy Neighbour and In Sickness and in Health. Heck, even American sitcom Friends (1994-2004) is too extreme for them.

 

[HBK4life]

Bencic? Isn’t she the one that cries during matches? What’s the hope?

 

[Angrybirdstar]

seeing quite a lot of search results for Virginia Wade referring to being called the "Great White Hope" by the British press when she was a Wimbledon contender, and some other news media referring to the likes of Rusedski or Murray in the same way

 

[MissileBackHand99]

What does the term "ultra woke" mean again??? QUICKLY.....

 

[PDJ]

I'm just happy to have news of Virginia Wade given she has been of poor health recently.

 

[Cashman]

a comment like this makes me wonder if she might not be a low key racist of sorts.

seeing quite a lot of search results for Virginia Wade referring to being called the "Great White Hope" by the British press when she was a Wimbledon contender, and some other news media referring to the likes of Rusedski or Murray in the same way

Yes - outside the US, "great white hope" is (or used to be) quite often used as a fairly generic phrase to mean 'person who has a lot of potential, and is being loaded up with a lot of expectations'.

I am not sure how it became that way. I can only put it down to the fact that Jack Johnson's story is not very well known outside the US (pre-WW1 American boxing is a pretty niche interest area), so the term migrated overseas without its original context. That said I see it less now than I used to - perhaps the internet age has made more non-Americans aware of its racial connotations. Certainly it's something I've lowkey dropped from my vocabulary since I found out.

No doubt Virginia Wade is just being a typical old person and using old-timey vernacular that she doesn't realise is offensive.

 

[jm1972]

She is lucky she isn't more famous outside Britian or this was before the ultra woke era, because wow the heat she would get in for that one comment:

While I would not call her an overt racist, given that she has said a ton of negative things about the Williams sisters and even Garrison when she played over the years, a comment like this makes me wonder if she might not be a low key racist of sorts.

What's woke?

 

[dryeagle]

Seems like anyone who doesn’t kiss BJKs ass enough is considered a racist / sexist / misogynist etc.

 

[MissileBackHand99]

Seems like anyone who doesn’t kiss BJKs ass enough is considered a racist / sexist / misogynist etc.

Nobody even mentioned BJK, but thanks for revealing yourself lol

 

[dryeagle]

Nobody even mentioned BJK, but thanks for revealing yourself lol

Thanks for making my point

 

[aus89]

I'm not really sure what the point of dredging this up apart from to complain about "wokeness" while parroting a phrase that is literally exclusively about white supremacy and racists making sport about race because they felt their honor "as a race" was on the line losing to a Black man who was dominant in the sport...

but putting that aside, yeah i think its just a phrase that worked into common usage through the play and movie in particular in the late 60's/early 70s, and probably used by some to mean an "underdog" - I don't think V Wade really had any racial motive behind this comment but you're clearly just attempting to start a whole thing about wokeness (feels like you wish you could talk more freely about white supremacy and you're about to start measuring people's skulls...)