I'm all in on Ms. Osaka as a worthy successor to the throne although I don't think Serena's quite done with it yet.
Congratulations on her Australian Open title. What do you all think?
Kudos to Ms. Osaka, for sure! Hopefully her profile will rise in the coming years. She's in her early 20s, yes?
I hope that the inevitable Serena vs. Naomi talk is minimized by the press, bloggers, sports pundits, etc.
-- particular to black culture discussions, I hope this doesn't boil down to ethnically nitpicking on Ms. Osaka (half Japanese), concluding that a corporate conspiracy is seeking to make her a more 'desirable' (in the mainstream culture) commercial sell than Serena, and expecting her to be "super-woke" in every interview or public appearance.. 
http://people.com/sports/nissin-foods-whitewash-naomi-osaka-pulls-ads/http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/23/naomi-osaka-sponsor-apologises-for-whitewashing-tennis-star-in-adhttp://newsone.com/3825989/serena-williams-racist-cartoon/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-11/serena-williams-cartoon-us-open-naomi-osaka-blackface/10230122That started months ago, with the media at times omitting her black/Haitian heritage. To her credit, Osaka has not joined in with that erasure. The tendency might be to blame black people for demanding more cultural/racial identification from Osaka, but thus far it's the non-black media that has been whitewashing her black heritage. And what's wrong if she is 'super woke'? How many black celebrities or athletes actually are? Almost none, unless they tie it to some other, more acceptable group.
We praise to the high heavens people like Muhammad Ali for speaking out back in the day, and he wasn't an old guy when he did, and other activist-athletes, but now are saying hands off for Osaka and others? Look, I'm not saying she has to say anything, or am I expecting her to, however if she did want to lend her voice it could bring awareness (ex. Colin Kaepernick and the other athletes out there raising their voices). Our celebrity culture gives a big microphone to athletes who are used to sell us merchandise and are held up as role models and societal unifiers, so why shouldn't they speak out if there's a social injustice, especially one that could personally effect them or their family members? I think we have to get beyond our fear of group consciousness and identification and the white backlash that can bring. Making ourselves small is not appreciated by everyone else. It just makes it easier to step over or on us, or ignore us.
I'm not expecting, nor do I want, Osaka, or most other athletes to be scholar-leaders necessarily for social justice movements (I think celebrities outsize influence and the push to call them 'leaders' has been one of our problems over the last 30 years), but as I said, they can bring awareness, they can provide financial support, etc. And Osaka, as a biracial woman can speak to what that is like and whatever she might face without having cracked open one book. And that might open the door for others to speak, to connect. I'm not saying she should, or has to, but it's something she can do. Because the media will use her heritage for their own ends, and if she chose she could do more to control that narrative. Hiding, or downplaying it isn't going to erase it, or quiet down the haters. It certainly hasn't for Serena, no matter how much she attempts to stress her gender in an attempt to elicit the sympathy her dark skin will not. Osaka is very young and it's a lot to take on, but she's proven already that she's not an average twentysomething.
