“While driving on the grounds of the city’s premier tennis club, the visiting Americans spotted a young boy on a roadside court practicing his serves and volleys with a handmade wooden paddle. Impressed by the boy’s strength and athleticism, Arthur inquired about his identity. Coincidentally, the boy had written him a letter three weeks earlier, hoping that he might meet the American star during his visit.
The “little brown skinned kid” as Arthur described him, turned out to be eleven-year-old Yannick Noah.”
OMG. Yannick Noah has been so important for myself and black people in France, it makes my eyes blurry just to think of the extraordinary situation here:
Arthur Ashe was discovered by a black man who was a fan of tennis –in Virginia, in the 40s- and got him to summer camps. Yannick Noah, who reached #3 worldwide as a single tennis player, was discovered by Arthur (who paid travelling expenses for Yannick to go to France from Cameroon).
The colossal power of representation and change often owe their own lives to a SINGLE person, who is simply dedicated, consistent and persistent.
Those three black men, Dr J the tennis fan, Arthur and Yannick the tennis players, silently inspired millions of black men, across multiple generations and across the world.
It is flawed: thinking that you can be safe and appreciated as a black man, only if you are one of the best at what you do, is not necessarily the most uplifting lie. But that will do. It starts the engine. It’s pumping hope in the tank. It’s giving strength.
And then figuratively or literally or both, we run as hard as we can. One hundred.