Naomi Osaka has been battling against racism forever. As per Naomi’s words, people have often failed to categorize her for being multi-ethnical. Naomi wrote an interesting piece for Esquire, talking about her experience of being multiracial.

“People have struggled to define me. I’ve never really fit into one description—but people are so fast to give me a label. Is she Japanese? American? Haitian? Black? Asian? Well, I’m all of these things together at the same time. I was born in Osaka, Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother. I spent my formative years growing up in the United States.

I’m a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a girlfriend. I’m Asian, I’m Black, and I’m female. I’m as normal a 22-year-old as anyone, except I happen to be good at tennis. I’ve accepted myself as just me: Naomi Osaka.”

Naomi then elaborated about being multiracial in Japan. She admitted that she has been the target of racists remarks every now and then. However, she also acknowledges that she had problems only with a minority.

“Japan is a very homogenous country, so tackling racism has been challenging for me. I have received racist comments online and even on TV. But that’s the minority. In reality, biracial people especially biracial athletes are the future of Japan. We (myself, Rui Hatchimura and others) have been embraced by the majority of the public, fans, sponsors, and media. We can’t let the ignorance of a few hold back the progressiveness of the masses. The love I feel from Japanese fans of all ages, especially the younger ones, has always been heart-warming. I am so proud to represent Japan and always will be.”

During the last month, Naomi has been involved in some spats over Twitter with people for Japan having racist remarks against the 2-times slam champion. However, Naomi later confirmed that she was upset only with the people targeting her stressing also the fact that Japan is not a racist country.

Naomi is currently training for the resumption of tennis. She is widely expected to play both the event in Cincinnati and the US Open that will be both staged in New York.

Naomi Osaka in 2020

Currently ranked no.10, Osaka played her last match on the 7^th of February when she lost to Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-0 6-3 in the Rubber 1 of the Fed Cup.

Naomi Osaka’s most significant result of the present season was reaching the semi-finals in Brisbane.