Coco Gauff: ‘I’m proud to represent the Americans that LOOK like me’

Coco Gauff has become the first American woman to win the French Open since Serena Williams, but her press interview that followed left those patriotic Americans who supported her — but maybe don’t see the world the same way she does — feeling a little less than inspired.

“Obviously, there’s a lot going on in our country right now,” Gauff said, before explaining that she feels like “a representation” of “people that look like” her in America. She went on to say that those who look like her “maybe don’t feel as supported during this time period” and that her win can be a “reflection of hope and light for those people.”

“After the election, everything, it kind of felt down period a little bit and things like that, and my mom told me during Riyadh, ‘Just try to win the tournament just to give something for people to smile for,’ and so that’s what I was thinking about today when holding that and then seeing the flags in the crowd,” she continued.

“Some people may feel some type of way about being patriotic and things like that, but I’m definitely patriotic, I’m proud to be American, and I’m proud to represent the Americans that look like me and people who kind of support the things that I support,” she added.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock and BlazeTV contributor Steve Kim are among those Americans feeling a little less inspired by her win after her press interview.

“Let me just say this as someone that’s always proud to be an American, not a Korean American, not an Asian American, an American American,” Kim tells Whitlock. “I believe that she’s paying the guilt tax, that if you are proud to be an American and you’re a POC, the darker you are, you are expected to have some guilt and expected to do some finger wagging.”

“There’s a pressure, to number one, feel some guilt. Number two, with that expected guilt, to then point the finger at America, claim some sort of oppression, whether there is or not, and you just can’t be proud to represent this great country,” he adds.

“I like your guilt tax,” Whitlock agrees. “But it’s also part of holding onto your black authenticity. And so, to really be black, you have to wag a finger at America, or you’re not really black. You have to be a victim.”

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