Serena Williams recently showed the limits of her audacity, questioning why she was chastised so severely for something that many other athletes had been given full passes for. The umpire for the second set in the 2018 US Open Women’s Final, Carlos Ramos, gave Williams an astonishing three code violations through the course of her set, and she argues that this is the reason that she was defeated by Naomi Osaka.

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Whether this is accurate could be cause for debate, but the more pressing reality of the situation is that these rulings were very clearly different than those seen in years past, frequently by men in the sport. The first violation Williams was awarded was one count of coaching--receiving any sort of help from coaches, captains, or family members during a game. This is immediately a source of conflict; William’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, quickly admitted to attempting to coach Williams from the stands, even defending his actions by claiming that coaches do this “100% of the time”. However, both Williams and her coach firmly state that they did not deserve a coaching violation, because Williams did not even see the signals that she was given a demerit for.

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The ensuing violations were deserved, but understandable. Williams smashed her racket on the ground in rage at her poor performance in one match, which earned her a second violation. Finally, she snapped at Ramos for his first call.

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“You are a liar. You will never be on a court of mine as long as you live. When are you going to give me my apology? Say you are sorry,” Williams said. She also called the umpire a thief for awarding her opponent a point for her earlier violation. The only question in this debate is were these outbursts justified?

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Yes, they absolutely were. Many athletes have come out in support of Williams, saying that they have received softer punishments, or that rules were not so stringently enforced when   they committed the same violations. The United States Tennis Association even made a statement regarding Williams’ treatment, USTA chief Katrina Adams saying, “There’s no equality when it comes to what the men are doing to the chair umpires and what the women are doing.” The lack of consistency in the rulings for athletes, specifically between men and women’s sports, should be a cause for concern for an entire nation.

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However, those who choose to belittle Williams’ feelings on the subject are generally doing so out of disrespect for her and for those who claim that there may be some semblance of a double standard. Those individuals do not understand the issue at hand, and simply see this as another example of an angry black woman. Not only was Williams not given the chance that she deserved because of the rulings, she will be (and has already been) a caricature of women and people of color, at the hands of racists and misogynists who have chosen not to validate her struggle. The true outcome of this debate will be the conversation surrounding Williams’ legitimacy as an athlete and a woman of color at the same time.