In this chapter I hold in tension with one another two identificatory scenarios, the first of which shores up and recapitulates racial stereotypes, while the second, I suggest, stages an ethico-political intervention in the circulation of such stereotypes by offering a divergent racial imaginary. The first scenario is that which fuelled, informed and was crystallised in a cartoon depicting African-American tennis star Serena Williams and mixed-race tennis champion Naomi Osaka after the controversy that marked the final of a tennis grand slam event. The second scenario is humorously and poignantly explored and celebrated in Luisa Omielan's comedic performance What would Beyoncé Do?, originally performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently filmed by the BBC, and available on YouTube.

After Serena Williams's loss to Naomi Osaka in the US Open Final women's tennis match in September 2018, which was marked by a controversy between the umpire and Williams, Mark Knight's cartoon appeared in The Herald Sun. Rachel Withers (2018) describes the cartoon as a ‘bigoted caricature of Serena Williams’ and goes on to say that

Withers adds that ‘mixed-race champion Naomi Osaka … is whitewashed into a faceless blonde being asked to let Williams win’.

Cartoons, as Mara Ahmed (2018) puts it, ‘create certain visual codes and a certain shorthand for an idea or a concept and a particular racist language which can shape the political and social landscape in a very powerful way’.