Last week right about this time I was railing against US swimming champion Michael Phelps for his inability to lose with class and dignity.  I said how it was yet another example of how we are "ugly americans" on a world stage.

Thanks to Phelps, we proved that many of us Americans don't know how to lose with dignity.  Now, one week later, thanks to Serena Williams, we also proved that we don't know how to win with dignity and class either.

Williams was dominant in winning the gold medal in womens tennis over the weekend, beating Maria Sharapova 6-love, 6-1 on centre court at Wimbledon. 

After winning, while awaiting the medals presentation, she broke into an impromptu dance.  This was not just any dance though.  It was not the hokey pokey or the funky chicken.  Nope, Serena decided to do a quick dance step called the "crip walk". 

It is a dance made popular in the 1970's in Serena's original hometown of Compton, California by the noted Crips gang.  The same gang you may have heard of, you know, the Crips and the Bloods?  The gang that made popping a cap in someone's ass a worldwide sensation.  The gang that is known for shooting up houses, for drive-by's, for violence, murder and mayhem in ghetto's and inner city's everywhere.

So here was Serena, in the ultimate moment of triumph, winning a cherished gold medal in the vaunted Olmpics, and she chose this stage to demonstrate a dance associated with all of this violence.

There was Serena, on the close cropped grass at Wimbledon, playing the game of kings and queens, in perhaps the most lily-white place on earth, in front of royalty, and she chooses to do a crip dance and align herself with one of the worst parts of American culture.

Just what you love to see from an American champion right?

I have to wonder what she was thinking.  Perhaps she didn't realize people would even realize what dance she was doing?  Perhaps she was just clowning around?  It almost seemed like it was some kind of inside joke with her sister Venus.  Almost like she was executing a bet with Venus, as in, "If I win the gold, I will do a crip walk before the medal presentation"?  Perhaps it was a clumsy attempt to look cool with many inner city folks across the US?  Whatever it was, she should have known better. 

I don't care if she was "just having fun" or lost in the moment of the excitement of winning.  To me, there is no excuse, and I refuse to condone or make excuses for Serena for this monumental slipup.

We live in a world of tweets, social media, and instantaneous video clips on a multitude of websites.  Maybe the mainstream media might not have "gotten it", and thought it was just a cute lil' dance, but she had to know that the moment she performed that little exhibition, thousands of people in the US and the world would see that and exclaim, "Yo man, did you see that...Serena just did a crip walk!".

She had to know that, and the fact that she did it anyways shows her ineptitude in knowing what is in good or bad taste.  If she did know, well, that's even worse!  Then she was basically thumbing her nose at representing the United States in a good and proper way, a classy way.

I think that is what bothers me more than anything about this.  If she did this dance after winning the Virginia Slims championships or some other minor tournament on the WTA tour, it would still be stupid, but it wouldn't bother me as much.  In this case, in the Olympics, Serena was representing the United States.  Her actions are representing us as a country and as a culture.  No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are a bunch of punks.

This was not an isolated incident for Serena Williams either.  Her career has been filled with questionable antics, quotes and demonstrations.  Perhaps her little dance should not be shocking.  It is sad to me though, that arguably the best femaile American tennis player in the history of the game can do so many things that make her so damn unlikeable.

For all of Serena Williams greatness in her career on the tennis courts, she has certainly had a lot of ugly instances that besmirched her character.  This was definitely another one.