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Coco Gauff revealed in a recent interview that she was subjected to a racist attack when she was just 12, during a tennis tournament in France.
In an exclusive interview with Time magazine, the 20-year-old opened about the experience, saying that a group of Croatian boys threw orange peels at her and called her a "monkey," making fun of her African-American heritage.
Gauff admitted that she ended up crying that night but quickly got over the incident the following day. The reigning US Open champion reasoned that the people who did probably didn't grow up around Black people, leading to them acting out in that way.
Looking back on the incident now, Coco Gauff said that she didn't have any anger towards it and that she chose not to let herself be defined by a foul experience like that.
“Then I just kind of got over it the next day, I just felt like that’s just something that people experience, which is not a great thing.
"They just probably didn’t grow up around other people that looked different. I don’t have any anger towards it. It was not an experience that defined me," Gauff said.
Coco Gauff previously fought against racial injustice, attended a Black Lives Matter rally to protest the killing of George Floyd
Coco Gauff has been a vocal supporter of the fight against racial injustice in the United States, most prominently featuring in a Black Lives Matter rally to protest the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Delivering a powerful speech at the rally, the then-teenager urged people to have "tough" conversations with their friends about race and educate non-Black people about how they can help the movement.
The World No. 3 also called on eberyone to use their voice and their platform to raise awareness about racial injustice prevalent in the country, asserting the need to not choose the side of silence, and by extension, the oppressor.
"I think it’s sad that I’m here protesting the same thing that (my grandmother) did 50-plus years ago. So I'm here to tell you guys that we must first love each other no matter what. We must have the tough conversations with our friends. I've been spending all week having tough conversations, trying to educate my non-black friends on how they can help the movement. Second, we need to take action," Coco Gauff said.
"You need to use your voice, no matter how big or small your platform is, you need to use your voice. I saw a Dr. (Martin Luther) King quote that said, 'The silence of the good people is worse than the brutality of the bad people.' So, you need to not be silent. If you are choosing silence, you're choosing the side of the oppressor," she added.
