In the mid to late 90's Tiger Woods, the 21-year-old golf star was given the nick name the "Great Black Hope", the putter-wielding equivalent of Martin Luther King Jr. Pundits waxed poetic about the cosmic social significance of Woods' magnificent feat. "I am Tiger Woods" ads seemed to gain much control of the airwaves. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of Jackie Robinson's breaking of baseball's color line, an event of much greater significance: Woods' coronation as the Black Prince of the Country Club gave America a chance to engage in its favorite ritual, the recitation of warm (if not warm and fuzzy both) racial attitudes. While blacks celebrated the triumph of one of their own in a lily-white sport, whites wiped away tears and congratulated themselves on their remarkable progress. The choreographed racial minuet was proceeding as smoothly as a 30-second TV Nike spot.
Then, Tiger Woods said he wasn't "black" at all but he was, in fact "Cablinasian." Woods made his remarks on the "Oprah" Show when he was asked if it bothered him to be called an African-American. "It does," he said. "Growing up, I came up with a name for myself in general: I'm a 'Cablinasian.'" As in Caucasian Black, Indian-Asian. Woods has a black father (or to be precise, if I am interpreting Woods' reported ancestry correctly, a black and American Indian, white father) and a Thai mother (or with the same caveat, a half-Thai, half-Chinese mother). "I'm just who I am," Woods told Oprah Winfrey, "whoever you see in front of you." This seemed to imply race wasn't an issue with Woods. But just "who I am" remained contested ground. According to Time magazine, Woods' coming out as a so called Cablinasian caused "a mini-racial firestorm ... Woods' remarks upset and infuriated many African Americans who now see him as a sell out to white folks.
Some blacks saw Woods' assertion of a multiracial identity as a sellout that could touch off an epidemic of "passing", after all most blacks in America stereotypically think if you look like Tiger, Colin Powell or any other light skinned ethnic person, you're always "black". This just goes to show the amount of racial tension from so many people who don't realize that Wood's can't help what he was born as, like he said, he is who he is. The fact that so many people would make an issue out of his race is ludicrous and it seemed to be exactly what Tiger was trying to avoid in the first place by saying he is who he is.
No one can deny Tiger Wood's is the best golfer of his generation and it's interesting to note that this little "Cablinasian" 2 year old could hit the ball with his child size golfing equipment even at the young age two as seen in the following video. Notice how little Tiger swings his golf irons similar to the way in which he does now only with more precision and grace.
While I'm not putting forward Tiger Woods as a role model, racial or otherwise. I don't know anything about him, except that he seems to respect both of his parents and is an athletic prodigy who is a master at self-marketing, and is given to telling black men have big dicks jokes in slick men's magazines. But whoever Woods really is behind the scenes, his refusal to be pigeon holed into a single racial category points the way out of the dualistic rigidity and emotional hysteria that has led America into a racial impasse. By choosing to embrace all of who he is: an entity for which there is no name, except one that sounds like a tribe from a country from the movie Narnia, Woods, the goofy 21-year-old with the golden-brown skin and the near to perfect swing, has become a messenger for a larger truth. The our racial differences don't make us who we are in life. - 29772
Then, Tiger Woods said he wasn't "black" at all but he was, in fact "Cablinasian." Woods made his remarks on the "Oprah" Show when he was asked if it bothered him to be called an African-American. "It does," he said. "Growing up, I came up with a name for myself in general: I'm a 'Cablinasian.'" As in Caucasian Black, Indian-Asian. Woods has a black father (or to be precise, if I am interpreting Woods' reported ancestry correctly, a black and American Indian, white father) and a Thai mother (or with the same caveat, a half-Thai, half-Chinese mother). "I'm just who I am," Woods told Oprah Winfrey, "whoever you see in front of you." This seemed to imply race wasn't an issue with Woods. But just "who I am" remained contested ground. According to Time magazine, Woods' coming out as a so called Cablinasian caused "a mini-racial firestorm ... Woods' remarks upset and infuriated many African Americans who now see him as a sell out to white folks.
Some blacks saw Woods' assertion of a multiracial identity as a sellout that could touch off an epidemic of "passing", after all most blacks in America stereotypically think if you look like Tiger, Colin Powell or any other light skinned ethnic person, you're always "black". This just goes to show the amount of racial tension from so many people who don't realize that Wood's can't help what he was born as, like he said, he is who he is. The fact that so many people would make an issue out of his race is ludicrous and it seemed to be exactly what Tiger was trying to avoid in the first place by saying he is who he is.
No one can deny Tiger Wood's is the best golfer of his generation and it's interesting to note that this little "Cablinasian" 2 year old could hit the ball with his child size golfing equipment even at the young age two as seen in the following video. Notice how little Tiger swings his golf irons similar to the way in which he does now only with more precision and grace.
While I'm not putting forward Tiger Woods as a role model, racial or otherwise. I don't know anything about him, except that he seems to respect both of his parents and is an athletic prodigy who is a master at self-marketing, and is given to telling black men have big dicks jokes in slick men's magazines. But whoever Woods really is behind the scenes, his refusal to be pigeon holed into a single racial category points the way out of the dualistic rigidity and emotional hysteria that has led America into a racial impasse. By choosing to embrace all of who he is: an entity for which there is no name, except one that sounds like a tribe from a country from the movie Narnia, Woods, the goofy 21-year-old with the golden-brown skin and the near to perfect swing, has become a messenger for a larger truth. The our racial differences don't make us who we are in life. - 29772
About the Author:
Cyndi Whittel is an avid golfer and collector of vintage and antique and old golf irons for sale. She was raised in Wheeler, Indiana and later moved to Chicago with her husband and 2 children, a son and one daughter where they collect Golf Clubs For Sale
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