“Representation of the greater mental health crisis in our culture,” former NBA star critiques Naomi Osaka heckling case
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Naomi Osaka and Royce White
Naomi Osaka has had a poor start to the new season, after a disappointing title defense in the Australian Open 2022 exiting in the third round, she then went crashing out of the Indian Wells Open 2022 in the second round.
It became worse for her as in the Indian Wells Open, as the former champion Naomi Osaka was heckled by the crowd during her match that saw the Japanese superstar break down in tears amidst the match. Playing against Veronika Kudermetova, Naomi lost the match 0-6, 4-6 but despite the good tennis played by the players, the heckling incident overshadowed the sport.
Former NBA star talks about the Naomi Osaka heckling incident
Former professional basketball player and mental health advocate Royce White recently talked about the whole incident involving Naomi Osaka. In an interview with Jason Whitlock, White explained what is the current situation of Osaka and expressed his sympathy towards her.
The American revealed that many people of Osaka’s generation are suffering from issues of the modern culture such as radical material and external validating culture. However, those things ultimately bring harm in the long run.
“I believe that she, like many in her generation, or in our modern culture, are suffering from a radical material and external validating culture. One that says, external validation and hyper materialism will give you empowerment and it’ll also make you healthy. But those things aren’t a pretext for health, they are actually a pretext for uncontrollable unresolvable angst and despair,” said White.
He then expressed his sympathy for the Japanese star but went on to state that the presence of such unsorted and unconstrained emotions worried him on how she would cope with the situation.
“I do feel for Osaka because I think that there’s so much radical, unconstrained, unsorted emotions there, that I actually worry about the way she may cope and I caution you and others who may be watching, not to use the anomaly of an Osaka breaking down in front of the world on this huge stage as a representation of the greater mental health crisis in our culture,” said the American.
White concluded by saying that Osaka had a moment of weakness which could be seen in many adults across the globe.
“Understand that, that is a moment of weakness… that is rightfully categorized as a weakness but many people have become weak in our modern American culture,” he added.
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Akash Mandal
(433 Articles Published)