The Breakfast Club - Black women are uneducated and classless? Taylor Townsend defeats Jelena Ostapenko to move on at the US Open and this became the conversation. 

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Townsend defeats Ostapenko which incites a heated conversation in which Jelena says some more than eyebrow raising words. Loren breaks it down and gives us some thoughtful analysis.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hey, y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa, and this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig on all things, pop culture, entertainment news, and all of the conversations that shake the room. today, we are going to get into a conversation that, honestly, it's giving all three. It's entertainment. It's pop culture related. And baby, it is shaking the room. So one of the biggest headlines, unfortunately, to come out of the U.S. Open is a back and forth between Helena Aspengo and Taylor, I probably said her last name wrong, and Taylor Townsend. Now, I was at the U.S. Open the day that this happened. I did not see this match. This happened a few hours

after I left the U.S. Open, but let me just set the scene for y'all. And we talked about this in the episode prior to this one here on the Lettuce with Lauren the Roses. If you want to hear my recap about the day that I spent at the U.S. Open, please go take a listen because it paints a very vivid picture of just how black this particular day at the U.S. Open was. So currently, Helena is being accused of being racist. And the reason why is because after Helena and Taylor competed in the match, they were a few

matches into the day, Taylor Townsend beat Helena 7561. Now, we've seen tennis get, you know, very fiery. People throw rackets and all the things. And it's fine. It's a very competitive sport. All sports are competitive sports, Lauren Duh. It's competitive. It's a sport.

It happens. Now, here's the thing. The conversation following the match is what? But to me, invigorated or, you know, charged up the moment a bit. Let's take a listen. And not to the conversation that happened because you really can't hear it too much because of the crowd and all the things. And they brought the mics up kind of late on the U.S. open floor.

But let's take a listen to Taylor Townsend, right after the match on the court. She's speaking with the reporter recapping what the conversation was. Taylor, congratulations. For a lot of black people, hearing no education, no class, would be interpreted and rightfully so as a dog whistle. Do you believe that that had racial undertones? And for black people and black women who will hear about this and may have dealt with certain situations where they've had comments, where they've interpreted as more than just competition, what would you say to them? so that's a two-part question first um no I can't speak on what her intentions were

I can only speak on how I handle the situation and how I handled it is someone who's upset about the outcome that occurred you got you lost and you're upset about that saying you have I have no education and no class I don't really take that personally because I know that it's so far from the truth. If I allow what other people have to say about me, affect me in that way, then they win. So ultimately, no. I stood up for myself. And if my son were to see this interaction, how would he view it? And I think he would be proud of the way that I handled the situation. So I can't speak on how she felt about it. That's something that you're going to have to ask her. But also, you know, that has been a stigma in our community of, you know,

being non-educated and all the things when it's the furthest thing from the truth the thing that i'm the most proud of is that i let my racket talk because ultimately i'm the one here sitting in front of you guys moving on to the next round getting the next check moving on being able to still be here and speak to you guys and that's what's the most important she's packed up and she's gone i'm here here's the thing because they did end up talking to taylor a bit more after the match and And she knew it was coming. Taylor Townsend, you know, has been doing this for some time. So has her opponent. So when she walked into the press room, she walks in, she's kind of like chuckling a little bit. She's like, oh, these the type of days y'all live for talking to the media

because she knew where it was going to go. And when they talked to her about whether she believed that, you know, the comment had a racist charge to it or, you know, whether her opponent she felt like, you know, there was, you know, racial undertones to what she had said to her. Taylor is saying that she took this, you know, that way. But I'm going to tell you all something right here. I started at the beginning of this telling you guys it was HBCU Day at the U.S. Open, okay? You got the aunties of all aunties there. They're dripped out in a prairie. For those of you guys who did not attend the HBCU that do not know what the prairie is, right? That means all of the black fraternities and sororities, all of their merch or their clothing

that represents their fraternities and sororities. You got women walking around in their colors. You have, you know, people from professionals to students to, you know, alum, alum, alum, alumni, like older alumni, young alumni from HBCUs in the building. I did not know, okay? So this particular day was HBCU day, but there is a whole U.S. open HBCU black community that I talked about in this last episode that I didn't even know existed. And when I tell y'all, it was giving everything blue. Black gifted and God blessed yesterday or this day at the U.S. Open and this went down.

This was the wrong day for you to do anything that slightly even gave you could be discriminating because of anything having to do with a color, especially against a black woman, right? So, of course, once this happened, because, you know, whether Helena meant this as, you know, racist or whether she's just ignorant to what microaggressions mean, look like, can feel like. And that happens, you know, that's a real thing. whatever the case may be, it was grabbed, it was taken, headlines went crazy, but people there also felt away. And you saw that because, you know, you have a black woman who is being called by a woman that is not black, by a white woman, she's not classy. She's telling Taylor Townsend,

she is uneducated, she is disrespectful. Of all the things you can say, I mean, you might as well just throw the N-word in there after all that, after all those three. Because from what it reads and how it feels is giving, this is how you look at her because she is a black woman. Now, granted, again, Taylor says she did not feel that way. But I promise y'all, no one else in understands took it took it the way Taylor did. Everybody else was like, wait, what? Do we ride at dawn? Like, what is happening? And you hear this in the crowd. I'm going to play a bit of the crowd for my listeners. You guys won't be able to see it. But please make sure you go and check it out. We'll have it posted to the Bronco writing Instagram. But in the crowd, if you just look

in the crowd when Taylor, after she has this. interaction with her opponent Helena. She goes to the crowd and she's beating on her chest and she's, you know, getting the crowd hyping, just enjoying the fact that she just won the match with her supporters and her fans there. And baby, they are up, out there seats, screaming. You look at the crowd, you see a lot of the aunties I'm telling you all about. You see them in the AKA colors. You see, you know, the church hats. The Baptist church was in the building. This was the wrong day for Helena to try and figure out anything about some class or some education. Let's take a quick listen to the crowd, just so y'all can hear.

And this is the crowd responding to Taylor following their back and forth. Today was, it, HBGU Day. First, talk about how much representation matters, and if you could hear the fans cheering for you out there. Could you hear the fans cheering? Not at all. You can see that emotion coming out of Taylor there. The entire court on court 11.

Taylor egging it on. You'd love to see that competitive fight. Wrong day for all of this. Now, I do want to, you know, get in a statement from Helena because she did take to her Instagram and post a few updates to try and clear up some things. Now, as far as, you know, people calling her racist because, of course, people found her social media and begin to express themselves very detailed in her comments. She said, I was never, and she capitalized never, I was never racist in my life.

and I respect all nations of people in the world. For me, it doesn't matter where you come from. There are some rules in tennis, and unfortunately, when the crowd is with you, you can't use it in a disrespectful way to your opponent. Now, what she's referring to, Helena, she, in the conversation, was alleging that Taylor Townsend

had violated a rule while on the court. And that was what her issue was. She was saying, you're not basically telling her, you're not educated enough about this game. Because because you're here in the U.S., you think you can, do whatever you want to do because you got the people on your side and tell us like what no you just need to learn she literally tells her and i'm a thought a bit of this in here because you can

kind of hear it she tells her you need to learn how to lose let's take a listen but prior to her addressing you know people calling her racist because initially depending on, you know, who you with, what timeline you checked into, if you were on Black Twitter initially, this gave that. From Rip, we were having conversations about, okay, wow, okay, here, we're still doing this? It's HBCU day. It's Black as hell at the U.S. Open today, and we're going to do this today of all days. But it did take some other people to arrive at this conversation. So originally when Helena had posted, she just posted in response to what the back and forth was all together. So she said,

just a small update about the match. Today after the match, I told my opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn't say sorry. But her answer was that she doesn't have to say sorry at all. There are some rules and tennis which most of the players follow. And it was the first time ever that this happened to me on tour. If she plays in her homeland, it doesn't mean she can behave and do whatever she wants. And then she said, in the beginning of the match, all players are supposed to start warm-ups on the baseline. She concluded

with, thanks to all my fans for your support. I will come back stronger situations like this motivate me to work even harder. Maybe they've been eating her up. Poor Helena. They've been eating her up in her comments every since. And again, I'm just

going to say one more time, just to say it. Taylor, you know, Taylor Townsend herself said, you know, I didn't feel it didn't feel racial. right but taylor townsen went to uh instagram and posted a caption and her tennis outfit was so cute that was one of the first things i noticed when i saw their back and forth i know we got to be paying attention to other things right now so a lot more to worry about loren than the outfit but y'all know me i thought her tennis outfit was so cute with the fire at the bottom and especially

because after the back and forth she's bringing the energy she's like yeah what's up no i'm not apologizing. Like, she's with all the, she's with all of the BS. Taylor Townsend was with it. But she posted some photos of her on the court during the match, after the match. And she said, bought the fire. Some people can't take the heat. Y'all see what I'm saying about the outfit? Brought the fire. Some people can't take the heat. Baby girl knew what she was doing. She also captioned it in the beginning of the caption, BTA, belt to ass, because she did do that. She spanked, oh girl. And then she said, on to the next love. y'all. Now, I have reached out to the U.S. Open to see if they'll be commenting on this at all.

It seems like both girls were able to get their side out. But if there's anything additional, if anything comes up, y'all know who's going to let y'all know? Because I'm going to be all in the business. Because now I'm a part of the HBCU U.S. Open community, okay? And I'm not leaving. Not leaving at all. I love it over there. I had a great time. I am low-key mad that I missed this match. But I did. I told you all yesterday. I did get to see Cocoa Golf made my whole day. even for like 10 minutes, made my whole day. So shout out to all the black girls in tennis, doing the thing, putting the bell to ask, continue doing what y'all doing.

We'll see what happens here. Do y'all think the U.S. Open should impose, you know, any, I don't know anything, any sanctions, any consequences of any sort for the conversation of these ladies had? Let me know what y'all think is sports, it's competition. I'm interested in here. Take it to the streets, to the tweets. You for the tweets. We outside, we outside, we outside, outside in the tweets.

the page I go. Y'all know I'll be right in those comments and the tweets with y'all talking back. I'm Lauren LaRosa. This is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. And at the end of the day, there is always a lot to talk about every single day. But y'all choose to be right here with me, and I appreciate y'all for that. I'll see you guys in my next episode. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison,

or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth. Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking for another heavy podcast about trauma, the saying it, this is for the one, ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant, loud, soft, and whole. The unwanted sorority is where black women, fims, and gender expansive survivors of sexual violence rewrite the rules on healing, support, and what happens after.

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