Before and after her first-round victory at the U.S. Open, Naomi Osaka wore a mask bearing the name of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was fatally shot by police.
It’s just one of seven face coverings, each in honor of a different person, that Osaka brought to Flushing Meadows — the same number of wins it takes to claim a Grand Slam trophy.
The world’s highest-earning female athlete hopes she can get the chance to raise awareness about racial injustice by using each mask during her stay in New York.
It was during that tournament last week that Osaka took a public stand by saying she would refuse to play her semifinal,
Joining athletes in various other sports who walked out to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a police officer in Wisconsin.
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old who was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation in March.