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He is not black enough! Will Smith’s role as Serena Willams father sparks colourism debate

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King Richard, an upcoming biopic about Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus has attracted criticisms amid reports that Will Smith will play the lead role.

The 77-year-old single-handedly coached his daughters to become two of the world’s greatest tennis players, despite having no previous experience of the game.

However, some netizens are of the opinion that Will Smith cannot interpret the role well because he is not dark skinned.

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Many also opined that darker actors, like Idris Elba and Oscar-winner Mahershala Al, should be used for Williams role saying it’s like when a caucasian is picked to play a Chinese person in a movie, and ‘blacking up’ is obviously unacceptable.

Some also argued that saying Will Smith is not black enough is bizarre and racist.

Meanwhile, Will Smith has not reacted on the reported casting or the criticism.

WuzupNaij reports that the Colorism means prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

Movie critics, fans and non-fans of Will Smith are however having a field day arguing for and against the actors’ eligibility to interpret the role of the 77-year-old Richard Williams.

One G’Challa, @thatyorubaguy said “Black People: We want to be seen for the content of our character and not the color of our skin…”

Richard Williams took tennis lessons from a man known as “Old Whiskey” and decided his future daughters would be tennis professionals when he saw Virginia Ruzici playing on television.

Williams says that he wrote up a 78-page plan, and started giving lessons to Venus and Serena when they were four and a half, and began taking them to the public tennis courts.  Soon he got them into Shreveport tennis tournaments. In 1995, Williams pulled them out of a tennis academy and coached them himself.

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