'Extreme racism': TV host's shocking on-air comments about Serena Williams

A Romanian TV host has been reprimanded over a shocking racial slur aimed at Serena Williams.

According to Business Insider, Radu Banciu said on his evening show during the US Open: “Serena Williams looks exactly like one of those monkeys at the zoo with the red asses.”

“If monkeys wore trousers, they’d look exactly like Serena Williams does on the court,” he said.

The National Council for Combating Discrimination in Bucharest has condemned Banciu’s comments.

“The governing board shows that slavery of people of colour was based, among other things, on their comparison with monkeys,” a press release said.

“As a result, such statements express a form of extreme racism.”

Banciu was fined about $2700, however it doesn’t appear as though he will lose his job.

Unfortunately for Serena it’s not the first time she’s been the victim of racism.

At the Miami Open in 2007 a spectator was kicked out for yelling: “Hit the net like any Negro would” while she was playing.

The Herald Sun also sparked controversy after the infamous US Open final in 2018 with a cartoon depiction of Serena that many labelled racist.

However the Australian media watchdog said it simply showed Serena “in a highly animated tantrum.”

"Specifically, concern was expressed that the cartoon depicted Ms Williams with large lips, a broad flat nose, a wild afro-styled ponytail hairstyle different to that worn by Ms Williams during the match, and positioned in an ape-like pose," the Australian Press Council said.

However it added: “The Council does not consider that the publication failed to take reasonable steps to avoid causing substantial offence, distress or prejudice without sufficient justification in the public interest.”

Serena’s US Open heartbreak

Serena suffered her fourth-consecutive defeat in a grand slam final at the US Open earlier this month, as she again came agonisingly close to Australian Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 majors before falling in straight sets.

Williams has not won a set in any of the four grand slam finals she has reached since returning from maternity leave in September 2017.

At Flushing Meadows, she fell to a first-time Grand Slam finalist in Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu.

with agencies