Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Toist. I'm a homegirl that knows a little bit about
everything and everybody you don't know if you don't lie
about that, right.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
La.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, y'all, what's up.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
It's Lauren lo Roza and this is the Latest with
Laura l Rosa. This is your daily dig on all
things pop culture, entertainment, news, and all of the conversations
that shake the room. Now today we're going to get
into a conversation that honestly, it's giving all three. It's entertainment,
it's pop culture related, and baby.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It is shaking the room.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So one of the biggest headlines, unfortunately, to come out
of the US Open is a back and forth between
Helena I sen Pango and Taylor probably said her last
name wrong and Taylor Townsend. Now, I was at the
US Open the day that this happened. I did not
see this. Matches happen a few hours after I left
the US Open. But let me let me just set
(00:57):
the scene for y'all, And we talked about this in
the episode prior.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
To this one here on the Lettus with Lauren the Roads.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
That is.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
If you want to hear my recap about the day
that I spent at the US Open.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Please go take a listen, because it paints a very
vivid picture of just how black this particular day at
the US Open was.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So Currently, Helena is being.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Accused of being racist, and the reason why is because
after Helena and Taylor competed in the match, there were
a few matches into the day, Taylor Townsend beat Helena
seven five to sixty one. Now we've seen tennis get
you know, very fiery, people throw rackets and all the things,
and it's fine. It's a very competitive sport. All sports
(01:42):
are competitive sports, Lauren do It's competitive.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
It's a sport. It happens. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
The conversation following the match is what to me invigorated
or you know, charged up the.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Moment a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Let's take a listen and not to the converse station
that happened, because you really can't hear it too much
because of the crowd and all the things, and they
brought the mics up kind of late on the US
Open floor.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
But let's take a.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Listen to Taylor Townsend right after the match on the court.
She's speaking with the reporter recapping what the conversation was.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Taylor, congratulations for a lot of black people hearing no education,
no class would be interpreted and rightfully so as a
dog whistle. Do you believe that that had racial undertones?
And for black people and black women who will hear
(02:39):
about this and may have dealt with certain situations where
they've had comments where they've interpreted as more than just competition,
what would you say to them?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
So that's a two part question. First, No, I can't
speak on what her intentions were. I can only speak
on how I handle the situation and how I handled it.
Is someone who's upset about the outcome that occurred. You lost,
(03:10):
and you're upset about that saying I have no education
and no class. I don't really take that personally because
I know that it's so far from the truth. If
I allow what other people have to say about me
affect me in that way, then they win. So ultimately, No,
I stood up for myself. And if my son were
(03:31):
to see this interaction, how would he view it? And
I think he would be proud of the way that
I handled the situation. So I can't speak on how
she felt about it. That's something that you're going to
have to ask her. But also, you know that has
been a stigma in our community of you know, being
non educated and all the things, when it's for the
furthest thing from the truth. The thing that I'm the
(03:52):
most proud of is that I let my racket talk
because ultimately, I'm the one here sitting in front of
you guys, moving on to the next round, getting the
next check, moving on, being able to still be here
and speak to you guys. And that's what's the most important.
She's packed up and she's gone, I'm here.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Here's the thing, because they did end up talking to
Taylor a bit more after the match, and she knew
it was coming. Taylor Townsend, you know, has been doing
this for some time, so has her opponent.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So when she walked into the press.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Room, she walks in, she's kind of like chuckling a
little bit, and she's like, Oh, these the type of
day y'all live for talking to the media, because she
knew where it was going to go. And when they
talk to her about whether she believed that it, you know,
the comment had a racist charge to it or you know,
whether her opponent opponent, she felt like, you know, there
was you know, racial undertones to what she had said
to her. Taylor is saying that she took this you
(04:42):
know that way. But I'm gonna tell y'all something right
here on. It started at the beginning of this telling
you guys it was HBCU Day at the US Open. Okay,
you got the aunties of all aunties there, they're dripped
out in a prairie. For those of you guys who
did not attend the HBCU that do not know what
the prairie is, right, that means all of the black
(05:02):
fraternities and sororities, all of their merch or their clothing
that represents their fraternities and sororities. You got women walking
around in their colors. You have you know, people from
professionals to students to you know, Aluma Aluma Lama alumni
like older alumni, young alumni from.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
HBCUs in the building. I did not know.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Okay, so this particular day, which was HBCU Day, But
there's a whole US Open HBCU Black community that I
talked about in this last episode that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I didn't even know existed.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And when I tell y'all, it was giving everything Black
gifted in God blessed yesterday or this day at the
US Open and this one down. This was the wrong
day for you to do anything that slightly even gave
you could be discriminating because of anything having to do
with a color, especially against a black woman.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
So, of course, once this happened, because you know, whether
Helena meant this as you know, racist, or whether she's
just ignorant to what microaggressions mean, look like, can feel like.
And that happens, you know, that's a real thing, whatever
the case may be. It was grabbed, it was taken,
headlines went crazy, but people there also felt away.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And you saw that because.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
You know, you have a black woman who is being
called by a woman that is not black, by a
white woman. She's not classy, she's telling Taylor Townsend, she
is uneducated, she is disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Of all the things you could say.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I mean, you might as well just throw the N
word in there after all that, after all those three
because from what it reads and how it feels, it's
giving this is how you look at her because she
is a black woman. Now granted again, Taylor says she
did not feel that way, but I promise y'all, no
one else and I'm staying suck at that took it
the way Taylor did. Everybody else was like, wait, what
(06:54):
do we ride at dawn? Like, what is happening? And
you hear this in the crowd. I'm gonna play a
bit of the crowd for my listeners. You guys won't
be able to see it, but please make sure you
go and check it out. We'll have it posted to
the Bronco Writing Instagram. But in the crowd if you
just look in the crowd and tailor. After she has
this interaction with her opponent, Helena, she goes to the
crowd and she's beating on her chest and she's, you know,
(07:15):
getting the crowd hype and just enjoying the fact that
she just won the match with her supporters and her
fans there and baby, they.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Are up out their seats screaming. You look at the crowd.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
You see a lot of the aunties I'm telling y'all
about You see them in the AKA colors. You see
you know the church hat, the Baptist church was in
the building. This was the wrong day for Helena to
try and figure out anything about some class or some education.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Let's take a quick listen to the crowd just so
y'all can hear.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And this is the crowd responding to Taylor following their
back and forth.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Today was is hbgu day first? Talk about how much
representation matters? And if you could hear the fans to
FIU you out there?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Could you hear fans cheering out? Not at all?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
You can see that emotion coming out of Taylor there
the entire court on court eleven, Taylor egging get on.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
You'd love to see that competitive fight.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Wrong day for all of this now, I do want to,
you know, get in a statement from Helena because she
did take to her Instagram and post a few updates
to try and clear up some things.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Now as far as.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You know, people calling her racist because of course people
found her social media and begin to express themselves very
detailed in her comments, she said, I was never and
she capitalized never. I was never racist in my life
and I respect all nations of people in the world.
For me, it doesn't matter where you come from. There
are some rules in tennis, and unfortunately, when the crowd
(08:46):
is with you, you can't use it in a disrespectful
way to your opponent.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Now, what she's referring to Helena she.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
In the conversation, was eleging that Taylor Townsend had violated
a rule while.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
On the court, and that was what her issue was.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
She was saying, you know, you're not basically telling her
you're not educated enough about this game because because you're
here in the US, you think you could do whatever
you want to do because you got the people on
your side, and tell us like what, No, you just
need to learn, she literally tells her, and I'm a
thought bitter this in here because you can kind of
hear she tells her, you need to learn how to lose.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
No, I don't have the woman anymore.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But prior to her addressing, you know, people calling her
racist because initially, depending on you know, who you with,
what timeline you checked into, if you on black Twitter,
initially this gave that from it from Rip we were
having conversations about okay, wow, okay, here we're still doing this.
It's HBCU day as Black as hell at the US
(09:54):
open the day, and we're gonna do this today of
all days. But it did text some other people to
arrive at this conversation. So originally when Helena had posted,
she just posted in response to what the back and
forth was altogether. So she said, just a small update
about the match today. After the match, I told my
opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a
(10:15):
netball in a very deciding moment and didn't say sorry.
But her answer was that she doesn't have to say
sorry at all. There are some rules in tennis which
most of the players follow, and it was the first
time ever that this happened to.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Me on tour.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
If she plays in her homeland, it doesn't mean she
can behave and do whatever she wants.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then she.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Said in the beginning of the match, all players are
supposed to start warm ups on the baseline. She concluded
with thanks to all my fans for your support. I
will come back stronger. Situations like this motivate me to
work even harder. Baby, they've been eating her up, poor Helena.
They've been eating her up in her comments every since.
(10:55):
And again, I'm just gonna say it one more time,
just to say it, Taylor. You know, Taylor Townsend herself said,
you know, I didn't feel it didn't feel racial, right,
But Taylor Townsend went to Instagram and posted a caption
and her tennis Offit was so cute. That was one
of the first things I noticed when I saw their
(11:16):
back and forth. I know, we got to be paying
attention to other things right now. It's a lot more
to worry about Lauren than the outfit. But y'all know me,
I thought her tennis offit was so cute with the
fire at the bottom, and especially because after the back
and forth, she bringing the energy.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
She like, yeah, what's up.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
No, I'm not apologizing like she's with all the She's
with all of the bs. Taylor Townsend was with it,
but she posted some photos of her on the court
during the match after the match, and she said, brought
the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Some people can't take the heat, y'all see what I'm
saying about the outfit. Brought the fire, some people can't
take the baby. Girl knew what she was doing.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
She also captioned it in the beginning of the caption
bta belt to as because she did do that. She
spanked oh girl, and then she said on to the
next love y'all. Now, I have reached out to the
US Open to see if they'll be commenting on this
at all. It seems like both girls were able to
get their side out. But if there's anything additional, if
(12:12):
anything comes up, y'all know who won't let y'all know
because I'm gonna be all ain't us nass because now
I'm a part of the HB US Open community, Okay,
and I'm not leaving, not leaving at all. Love it
over there. I had a great time. I am lowkey
mad that I missed this match, but I did. I
told y'all yesterday I did get to see Cocoa golf.
Made my whole day, if even for like ten minutes,
(12:32):
made my whole day. So shout out to all the
black girls and tennants doing the thing, putting the belt
to ask continue doing what y'all doing. We'll see what
happens here. Do y'all think the US Open shining polls?
You know any I don't know anything, any sanctions, any
consequences of any sort for the conversation that these ladies had.
Let me know what y'all think. It's sports, it's competition.
(12:55):
I'm interested in hearing. Take it to the streets, to
the tweets, to be outside.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
We outside. We tweet every other page, y'all know.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I'll be writing those comments to the tweets with y'all
talking back.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I'm Laura L.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Rosa this is the latest with Laura l Rosa and
at the end of the day, there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Is always a lot to talk.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
About every single day, but y'all choose to be right
here with me and I appreciate y'all for that.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I'll see you guys in my next episode.