There are moments in sports, in culture, and in history that demand a double take, and Serena Williams c-walking during the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show was one of them. A mere five-seconds that sent the internet ablaze and reminded the world exactly who she is and why.
Almost a week after the Super Bowl, my social media feeds are still full of clips, opinions, and examinations of Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance. As a tennis fan, I’ve been especially curious about the commentary around Williams’ appearance in the show, and as I suspected, a lot of people showed their entire asses as a result.
At halftime last Sunday during Kendrick Lamar’s performance of “Not Like Us,” a song cemented as a the best West Coast diss track since No Vaseline, the camera panned to Serena Williams, 43 years young, a GOAT in her own right, hitting a crisp c-walk in the corner of the stage (on the letter “X” mind you). For those who understood the layers of history and personal narrative at play, it was deliciously petty in a multitude of ways only a mind as diabolical as Lamar’s could conjure up.
Of course, a list of usual (and not so usual) suspects chimed in with their two penny hot takes. Critics who have policed Serena’s body, her tone, her behavior for decades were suddenly deeply concerned about gang culture. The same pundits who claim “to not see color” were suddenly seeing red over a Black woman, with a white husband, and brown babies dancing unapologetically in bright Dodger blue. Some had the audacity to suggest she was being insensitive to her own sister’s tragic death, as if Black people aren’t allowed to reclaim, redefine, and celebrate in ways that make sense to us. As if Serena Williams needs permission to fully exist.
After defeating Maria Sharapova and securing Olympic gold at Wimbledon in 2012, she did a similar dance (it was the same) and was met with outrage. “Classless,” they called it. “Inappropriate.” Because, of course, a young Black woman celebrating winning a gold medal in a way that came natural to her was somehow deemed offensive. Never mind the fact that her dance was not some random act of rebellion but a celebratory nod to her roots, her city, and the culture that shaped her. Never mind that joy—unfiltered joy—is a right, not a privilege. It’s not like she was standing on the podium with a fist in the air, or taking a knee, or wearing a tan fucking suit.
In 2025 the story is different. This time, Serena wasn’t in a space where she had to play by a set of unspoken rules. She stood as an invited, welcomed guest, empowered to make the rules in an environment where black people are told shit like “respect the game.” On this stage, Williams was surrounded by artists who own their narratives, not apologize for them. There, Serena Williams didn’t need anyone’s permission, and she wasn’t asking for it.
In a time where political motives and policies are being aimed to diminish the operational existence of several communities, Lamar’s performance at large was an exercise, if not a wake up call, to unapologetically fight for one’s rightful space. When we’re allowed to take up our space, we can at least be better poised to navigate either within or adjacent to systems not meant to work for us.
At the root, Williams’ appearance in the Super Bowl wasn’t just about pettiness towards the Canadian (although the levels of pettiness were exquisite and aspirational), it was about freedom. Serena Williams, a woman who has spent her entire career navigating racist double standards, got to exist in her full, joyful, triumphant self on the biggest stage in the world. A level of emboldened unbotheredness that we should all strive to embody every day.
It’s likely the same people who have weaponized terms like “woke,” and “BLM,” and “DEI,” that are clutching their pearls, marinating in fake outrage, drenched in their own selective hypocrisy. And they can miss me with the bullshit. Serena Jameka Williams, do your dance.
