Serena Williams lambasted The New York Times for erroneously using a picture of sister Venus Williams in her place and urged the publication to “do better.”In a print story regarding the success of her new capital venture fund, Serena Ventures, The New York Times ran the story with an image of Venus Williams instead of Serena.
However, Venus is in no way affiliated with the project despite the use of the picture.
The fund was set up in an effort to increase diversity within the technology industry and Serena took to Twitter to illustrate how the incident only proved to legitimise her reasonings for starting the fund.
She wrote “no matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough. This is why I raised $111M for Serena Ventures.“To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked.“You can do better, New York Times.”The famous American publication subsequently issued an apology and promised a correction.
Their apology read “this was our mistake. It was due to an error when selecting photos for the print edition, and it did not appear online. A correction will appear in tomorrow’s paper.”
The fund has raised $111 million (£83 million) and will invest in founders with diverse points of view.
Serena has began preparing for a life outside of tennis by investing in a number of companies and start-ups, however she revealed that the origins of her interest in technology stemmed from a deep interest in how it “shapes our lives.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion said “I’ve always been fascinated with technology, and I’ve always loved how it really shapes our lives.
“When I met my husband, that was our first conversation. That’s how we met. I was talking about investments.”
She married Alexis Ohanian, who is the co-founder and executive chairman of renowned social media website Reddit.
This was our mistake. It was due to an error when selecting photos for the print edition, and it did not appear online. A correction will appear in tomorrow’s paper.
