Serena Williams spoke out against the New York Times on Thursday after the newspaper incorrectly published a photo of her sister, Venus, in an article about her venture fund.
Williams, who is one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time, urged the New York Times to “do better” in a tweet that racked up 38,000 likes overnight.
"No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it's not enough," Williams said.
"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."
The story by the Times detailed how Williams raised $US111 million for a new venture fund, Serena Ventures, which plans to invest in founders with diverse points of view. The error was made in the print edition.
Replying to the Tweet, The New York Times’ Business account said: “This was our 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.”
Below Williams' tweet, users called it especially disrespectful considering their prolific careers, while others said it
In 2019, WHO magazine published a two-page interview with South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech but incorrectly used a picture of another model.
In the interview, Akech had discussed people's attitudes to colour and her career in fashion.
Also in 2019, Germany's Elle magazine misidentified model Naomi Chin Wing as fellow model Janaye Furman in a 'Back to Black' edition that was slammed for painting black models as "trendy".
The same year, celebrity gossip page Hollywood Life copped criticism when it misidentified K-Pop singer Jennie Ruby Jane of BlackPink to its almost 3 million followers. Jane, who has over 63 million followers on Instagram, was mixed up with fashion influencer and model Irene Kim.
On another occasion, actor Samuel L. Jackson scolded an interviewer who mistook him for fellow movie star Laurence Fishburne.
The interviewer had asked about a commercial in which Fishburne starred.
"We don't all look alike! We may all be black and famous but we don't all look alike," said Jackson. "There's more than one black guy doing a commercial."
