Author Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies, in a Saturday Times article on the recession's racial divide: "What do you get when you combine the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the first black president? A surge of white racial resentment, loosely disguised as a populist revolt. An article on the Fox News Web site has put forth the theory that health reform is a stealth version of reparations for slavery: whites will foot the bill and, by some undisclosed mechanism, blacks will get all the care."

A sign spotted at the weekend "Tea Party" event, where protesters – carrying pictures of Obama defaced to look like Hitler or the devil – insist there are no racial undertones to their vitriol: "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THIS SIGN SAYS YOU'LL CALL IT RACISM ANYWAY!"

Washington Post readers, responding to columnist Michael Wilbon, who said yesterday's Serena Williams foot fault call was a really bad one (even if her reaction was too): "Youtube clearly shows Serena stepping on the baseline. Is that a foot fault? Or are rules determined by race. Is Serena allowed to break the rules of tennis because she is African American, a woman, a champion and American or whatever?"

And: "Wilbon, you lie or don't know the rules. Don't play the race card! Find another job!"

Keli Goff, weighing in on the same subject at the Huffington Post, saying one "can't simply blame race." Throw class in there too.

With the Williams sisters it has always been less about what color they are and more about who they are: from Compton, not from Connecticut; wearing wildly colored fashion combos, instead of pristine tennis whites; talking loud and proud of their roots, instead of quietly trying to blend in; rocking braids and cornrows in the early days, instead of joining the ranks of Beyonce and (some of the rest of us) by getting a more socially acceptable, "lady-like" weave....

Yes Serena was wrong.

But so was the lineswoman.

And so is every tennis fan who isn't willing to honestly admit that Saturday's call never would have happened, nor been deemed acceptable for any other player under those circumstances.

But other players are not named Williams.

Who wants to go there on Kanye West and Taylor Swift?

Image via brinux on Twitpic

Wemple

So everyone knows that 17-year-old Melanie Oudin made one hell of a run at the U.S. Open this year; the No. 70 seed dispensed with Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova, before being defeated last night by Caroline Wozniacki. The accolades have just streamed in.

But some in the blogosphere are wondering if there isn't some reason other than her talent that she has been so readily embraced by the media: namely, her physique (petite) and her skin color (white).

Writes the women's issues site Jezebel:

Oudin certainly seems to be a lovable sports star, and her accomplishments are definitely praise-worthy, but there is something off about the way she is being celebrated. She has been called the "darling" of the U.S. Open, America's "sweetheart," a "pint-sized, freckled-faced blonde from Georgia," the "tiny little savior of women's tennis," everything it seems, save tennis' "Great White Hope" (although given the media coverage of Oudin's win, it would probably be more like the "little, teeny-tiny, super cute White Hope").

Especially problematic was this article from the Daily Beast, which quoted ESPN sportscaster Michelle Beadle comparing Oudin to the Williams sisters. "From Day 1, I've never heard the Williams sisters referred to as sweethearts," she said.

Even if racial considerations weren't an issue before that reference, it seemed more than fair to talk about them after.

One question, as posed by Jezebel, is: What does that really mean, "America's sweetheart"? And could there be something as radical as a black sweetheart?

Among those enjoying that label, over the years: Shirley Temple, Marilyn Monroe, tennis player Chris Evert, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, even Sarah Palin.

They're not all blonde, but...

In July, the online site cinematical weighed in, almost desperately, it being the pre-Oudin age and all, on who might be the next sweetheart (since several of those mentioned above are "in their 40s now and are no longer interested in the title"). I scoured the list of a dozen candidates, certain that every single last woman on it would be white (if not blonde and white). Kirsten Dunst: check. Scarlett Johansson: check. Anne Hathaway: check. But just making the cut, at No. 12, was the African-American actress Meagan Good.

So that proves it: There can be a black sweetheart! Just not, God forbid, anyone as tall, in-your-face-muscular, and good – columnist George Vecsey of the New York Times suggested they are sometimes "too good" – as Venus or Serena Williams.

Weighing in was Milton Kent, a former sportswriter at the Baltimore Sun who hosts "Sports at Large" on WYPR in Baltimore and is, as it happens, a friend of mine. Kent, for the record, is black. And the Grio is a news site aimed at an African-American audience.

Before he started writing – setting out, impossibly, to speak for everyone of his race and his gender on the question of what constitutes beauty – Kent floated the question on his Facebook page, saying he needed help with a "sensitive subject." Sensitive is one word! As he recounted in his post, "the aftermath was like watching people running from a burning building as if their hair were on fire."

None of his friends had much advice, save for "good luck," though one did offer this: "I have no answer Milton, but if you can find that out, then also find out why white men DO NOT want a plus sized women. Inquiring minds want to know."

When I called him this afternoon to ask him about the assignment, he immediately conceded: "When they threw it at me, the first thing I thought was 'Why me?' and 'Why this?'"

To those questions, I add a less diplomatic one: What was that editor thinking?

In his post, Kent discusses Maria Sharapova (thin, blonde, and a "favorite of the overwhelmingly white fanboy sports blogosphere"), Serena Williams ("any discussion of Serena Williams has to begin with her backside, her black, her African, derriere," he quotes the author of Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through the Color Complex, Marita Golden, as saying) and, briefly, his own wife (she "isn't built like a supermodel," a fact he says he appreciates).

But I'll give away the ending: He doesn't answer.

D.C. United's pride, but little else, is on the line again in a U.S. Open Cup match tonight at the Maryland SoccerPlex. Fresh off vanquishing the amateur Ocean City (N.J.) Barons, otherwise known as "the Real Madrid of Ocean City (N.J.)," United now has to take on the Harrisburg City Islanders, known around their hometown as, you know it: "the Real Madrid of Harrisburg."

Again, no matter how old this U.S. Open Cup tournament is, and United's crack PR staff keeps telling everybody it's really, really old, all these games against no-name teams in the suburbs ain't good for the brand.

***

The Washington Times' Thom Loverro tells the story of gangster John Dillinger's flair on the baseball diamond before he went bad, and gives some ink to a latter-day John Dillinger who stuck with baseball but probably would have made more money if he'd taken up crime.

Johnny Depp's only going to play one of 'em in "Public Enemies," a megamillion dollar feature film that explains the timing of Loverro's piece.

But revisiting the tale of the first John Dillinger is worthy: It reminds all DC fans that Austin Kearns, he of the $8 million 2009 salary and sub-Mendoza batting average, isn't the first guy to use baseball as a path to robbery.

AFTER THE JUMP: Venus, the star, is aligned for tonight? How do you sign up for trapeze school? Just one more crystal meth bust and we've got a story?

***

Kearns wasn't in the lineup, but his teammates picked up where he left off on the non-hitting front, getting blanked, 1-0, by the Colorado Rockies late last night. Shut out in Denver?

***

Nicole Bobek, the post-Tonya Harding "bad girl" of the prissy rink set who won some titles in the mid-1990s, has just been charged with meth amphetamine distribution in New Jersey. Bobek's bust comes in the midst of NASCAR's Jeremy Mayfield's court battle to get reinstated after his suspension for having meth in his pee pee after a race in Richmond this spring. Guess Sudafed won't be sponsoring Mayfield's #41 Toyota when he gets back on track.

One more of these arrests, and look for a heap of trend stories on high-profile athletes who threw it all away for this brand new wonder drug.

***

The Washington Kastles say Venus Williams, just three days from losing to her sister in the Wimbledon final, will indeed live up to her contractual obligation and appear with the Philadelphia Freedoms tonight in a team tennis match at the old Convention Center site. Last year, Serena lost to Venus in the finals, and made the same three-day turnaround to appear at a clinic with the Kastles during the day and play with the squad here that night. Their lives aren't really theirs.

***

The Kastles aren't the only ones playing with a net downtown. The tennis team is sharing the big parking lot this year with a trapeze school.

The Trapeze School of New York moved its flying trapeze rig and relocated its teaching staff from Baltimore several weeks ago.

Beth Manning, spokesperson for the school, says things have been swinging along quite well since the grand opening here in early June.

"The president of the company had to come down from New York yesterday to teach because we're so busy in D.C. now," Manning says.

A lot of local businesses are using the school for corporate team building exercises, Manning says. "There's a lot of trust involved in trapeze," she says.

Just what this town's craving: Today's classes, like most days lately, are all sold out, Manning says.

"But I've got an opening tomorrow for one person at 9:30 [a.m.] and one at 12:30 p.m.," Manning says.

For information, phone 410-459-6839 or email dcinfo@trapezeschool.com.

***

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