Serena Williams says that her daughter will be 'so proud' of father Alexis Ohanian for resigning from Reddit board
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Olivia Singh
Jun 6, 2020, 20:45 IST
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have been married since 2017 and have a daughter named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Serena Williams reacted to Reddit cofounder and husband Alexis Ohanian announcing that he's stepping down from the company's board and urging them to "fill my seat with a black candidate."
Williams said that their two-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., will be "so proud" of her father's action.
"So proud of your commitment to not just me but to 'us,'" the tennis player added.
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Serena Williams says that her daughter will be "so proud" of father Alexis Ohanian after he revealed that he's stepping down from the Reddit's board of directors with the hope that a black candidate will fill his position.
On Friday, Ohanian said that he cofounded the site in 2005 "to help people find community and a sense of belonging."
"It is long overdue to do the right thing," he continued. "I'm doing this for me, for my family, and for my country."
Ohanian, who has a daughter named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. with Williams (who he wed in 2017), continued: "I'm writing this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: 'What did you do?'"
A post shared by Alexis Ohanian Sr. (@alexisohanian) on Jun 5, 2020 at 9:24am PDT
Ohanian went on to say that he resigned from the board and "urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate and I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I'm starting with a pledge of $1M to Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp."
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"I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop," he concluded.
Williams applauded her husband's actions, quoting one of his tweets and writing: "So proud of your commitment to not just me but to 'us.'"
Reddit, which was cofounded by Ohanian and Steve Huffman, has previously been criticized for not taking action against hateful content, racism, and misinformation spread by users on the site.
Williams herself spoke about race and her experiences with racism during a conversation with rapper Common in 2016, saying that she "wouldn't want to be any other color."
"There's no other race, to me, that has such a tough history for hundreds and hundreds of years, and only the strong survive, so we were the strongest and the most mentally tough, and I'm really proud to wear this color every single day of my life," she said.
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