Arthur Ashe by Justin Bua **
Solve this problem: Your daughter’s playing with a doll, a gift she just received from a friend. The doll is white.
1968: John Carlos’ black power salute Arthur Ashe wins the first US Open. 1970: Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye the problem of “whiteness” as a standard of beauty Arthur Ashe wins The Australian Open. 1972: Bettye Saar The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. 1975: Ashe slowballs Connors to win Wimbledon “no matter what I do, or where or when I do it, I feel the eyes of others watching me, judging me.” Arthur avoids tennis clubs where he is not allowed, skips tournaments he cannot enter, turning and turning as contemplative as inward as Rembrandt, his favorite artist. In Rembrandt’s “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer,” Ashe sees the “close kinship between admiration and envy” he must feel when contemplating John Carlos or Muhammad Ali—black athletes who could protest in ways Ashe’s personality and patriotism would not allow. Ashe always soft-spoken and behind the scenes. “The problem with you, Arthur, is that you are not arrogant enough” (Jesse Jackson). White racists told Ashe how to live. Black activists told Ashe how to live. Should he take the white doll away from his daughter during a nationally televised benefit for the Arthur Ashe Foundation of Aids the year before his death? Does the the burden of race weighs more than the burden of AIDS? Nelson Mandela in prison reads “A Hard Road to Glory,” Ashe’s three volume history of the black athlete. Ashe cannot abide any sacrifice of dignity, any sacrifice of morality, the question always always how can a black person live a life of freedom and dignity. In his excursions to South Africa to play tennis, Ashe did as much as anyone to challenge the system of apartheid. Mandela in America smiling that smile when someone whispers Ashe’s name in his ear: “Ah, Arthur is here.”
*much of the material here is taken from Ashe’s Days of Grace
** About the Artist (From BUA’s Justin BUA)
Justin BUA is an award-winning artist, author, speaker, and entrepreneur. Groundbreaking in his field, BUA is internationally known for his best-selling collection of fine art posters—the DJ being one of the most popular prints of all time. BUA exhibits throughout the United States and internationally—with recent shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Pop International Gallery, New York. His energetic and vocal worldwide fan bases ranges from former presidents, actors, musicians, professional athletes and dancers, to street kids and art connoisseurs.
I recently finished reading BUA’s second art book, The Legends of Hip Hop, which is aptly described as the definitive word on hip hop from its leading artist. Highly recommended! Check out, for example, this fantastic group portrait of A Tribe Called Quest. If you’re a fan of music or sports or just great painting, I also recommend joining Justin Bua’s legions of followers on Instagram. His live “Rage Against the Brush” shows are, for me, one of best ways of staying informed about what’s happening out there.
Justin Bua on Arthur Ashe (taken from BUA’s Instagram Post on Ashe)
Arthur Ashe was an African-American social and civil rights activist. He was also the first African-American notable male tennis player. The only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. If we delve into the life of Ashe we see an extraordinary influential social and civil rights activist. Certainly, there would be no Colin Kaepernick without the greatness of figures like Arthur Ashe in sports history.
“Arthur Ashe” was originally published in Another Chicago Magazine.
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