The Undefeated and SurveyMonkey recently took on the daunting task of ranking the 50 greatest black athletes of all time. With methodology that included weighting responses to reflect U.S. demographics on the whole, it was a serious undertaking.
Serena Williams, recently announced as the No. 1 earner among female athletes for 2017, as she was in 2016, finds herself at No. 6 on this all-time black athletes list.
More tennis players appear on the list, including Venus Williams at No. 15—"without Venus, there would be no Serena"—and Arthur Ashe at No. 38. ("Ashe was more than tennis.")
Stat-tastic site *FiveThirtyEight* posted thoughts about the findings, and a lot of notable insights into Serena's appeal become evident: She is a leader in the eyes of females polled, slipping among men; those under 35 who were polled rated her higher than those over that age; and Serena ranks much higher among "nonwhite" voters than those who are white.
In September's issue of *Vogue*, Williams opines that she has to be "twice as good" as her foes who are white, such as Maria Sharapova, to be taken seriously or considered approachable.