To tennis champion Serena Williams, a decision to let her 18-year-old nephew drive her to meetings so that she could safely use her phone in the car filled her with misgivings.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Williams described how spotting a police officer on the side of the road during her ride with a black youth at the wheel inspired thoughts of life and death.
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Serena Williams: I won't be silent
The tennis champion speaks of her fear while driving in the US as yet two more black men are killed by police.
"I quickly checked to see if he was obliging by the speed limit," Williams wrote on her public Facebook page. "I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend."
"All of this went through my mind in a matter of seconds," she wrote. "I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew."
The "woman in the car" was mostly likely a reference to the girlfriend of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker who was at the wheel when he was pulled over in July by a Hispanic police officer in a Minnesota suburb, ostensibly for a cracked rear light. He was shot and killed while reaching for his identification.
As a high-profile athlete, Williams used the weight of her celebrity to convey the despair that has gripped many black Americans after multiple police killings, most of them men. Her post also highlighted the awareness by black Americans that they are often regarded with suspicion by the authorities during everyday activities.
Earlier this week, NBA star LeBron James said that his son would start driving his own car in four years, but that he was afraid for him already.
"It's a scary thought right now to think if my son gets pulled over, and you tell your kids if you just (comply) and you just listen to the police that they will be respectful and things will work itself out," he said, according to ABC News.
He added that he was "not that confident that things are going to go well and that my son is going to return home."
Williams, who signed off her Facebook post with the words, "I Won't Be Silent," noted that her nephew was "so innocent," but so were "the others."
"I am a total believer that not 'everyone' is bad," she wrote. "It is just the ones that are ignorant, afraid, uneducated and insensitive that is affecting millions and millions of lives. Why did I have to think about this in 2016?"
New York Times
Today I asked my 18 year old nephew (to be clear he's black) to drive me to my meetings so I can work on my phone...
Posted by Serena Williams on Tuesday, 27 September 2016
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