Naomi Osaka Wears Breonna Taylor Face Mask To Shed Light On Racial Injustice
Image via Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com
As the highest-paid female athlete, Naomi Osaka is using her position to shed light on racial injustice by wearing a face mask with the words “Breonna Taylor” on it during the US Open.
The 26-year-old EMT officer was killed by Louisville police officers who executed a no-knock warrant in her home, firing at her eight times after her boyfriend shot at them.
Osaka entered the arena with the face mask on during her match against Misaki Doi. Though she walked away as a winner, she also prompted people to pay attention to racial injustice in the country.
“I’m aware that tennis is watched all over the world, and maybe there is someone that doesn’t know Breonna Taylor’s story,” Osaka told reporters on Monday.
“Maybe they’ll like [to] Google it or something. For me, just spreading awareness. I feel like the more people know the story, then the more interesting or interested they’ll become in it,” the 22-year-old added.
Osaka also said that she has seven masks with the names of Black victims who were killed unjustly. She decided to wear Taylor’s name first “because she was most important.”
“There are still marches going on even though people don’t really talk about it,” the tennis icon added.
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) September 1, 2020
[via Daily Dot, cover image via Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com]
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