Let’s Be Real About Tiger Woods “Black” Victory

The black people that have been calling Tiger Woods Sunday’s 2019 Golf Masters win a win for black people are being silly. It’d be nice if Thanos could use the Infinity Gauntlet to snap away the silliness that some people have exhibited towards this “win” out of existence. Tiger’s recent win wasn’t a win for the black community, but a win for Tiger Woods. The reasons are obvious, but let’s take it bit by bit.

The Rational Mind At Work

When Tiger Woods made a triumphant comeback on Sunday to win his fifth Master’s Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, putting him three steps back from equaling Jack Nicklaus record for most majors titles, his victory made global headlines (for those who care about golf). Once again, Tiger Woods was highly celebrated, not just for the fact that he had to beat off younger competitors to emerge as one of the oldest winners of the Tournament at the age of 43, but also for all of the adversity he had been through for the past decade.

Considering all the trials and tribulations, all the personal and professional humiliations, and all the ridicule and mockery he had been through since his life-threatening car crash and admission of infidelity, Wood’s Sunday victory could well be treated as a golden fight-back song, and it’s understandable when some people reacted emotionally and warmly to this victory.

Michael Jordan described it as the greatest comeback he has ever seen. That’s the typical human rational mind at work, especially when Woods emotionally embraced his son right behind the 18th green, a flashback scene that reminds us of the same bear hug that he once shared with his late father (Earl Woods) following his first ever conquest of the Masters back in ’97.

Of course, you might not help but feel some type emotional racial attachment to this victory when you understand that it all happened on a ground that was once home to a slave plantation. A ground that no black golfer was allowed to compete or become a member of until 1990.

You might take this victory on as your own when you understand Tiger’s historic personal fascination with Augusta. During his teenage years, Tiger was questioned by a reporter during a TV Interview about why the Augusta Masters Tournament captures his imagination so much, and the then confident and straight-to-the-point 14-year-old succinctly answered, “because of the way blacks have been maltreated there, as if they should never have been there. And if I win this Master’s Tournament, it would be a big win for every one of us (blacks).”

While all of the factors mentioned above are genuine reasons to share in the Tiger Woods 2019 victorious comeback song, it is outright silly for anyone (especially blacks) to call it a victory for black people. If you think or want us to think that Tiger’s Master’s victory is for the black community; get real. It’s not a victory for the black community, and shouldn’t be called that.

If you are ready for a fight, grab your gloves (you might as well borrow some from Tiger) and let’s hit the fact-finding ring for some boxing rounds of a serious reality check below.

You Are Who You Chose To Be And What You Want Others To Think You Are

One of the greatest gifts of humanity is free will—the ability to think and act in whichever way you deem fit. Your power of choice is one thing in life; no one can take from you unless you willingly submit it. Even God doesn’t force people against their will (depending on who you talk to, he is always looking for those that will willingly submit to his will) and the Devil respects that too (only enticing with worldly lust to entrap your will).

So, why should we force a “black man” who said he is no black man to be a black man? Oh, yes! Tiger Woods, since he graduated from his teenage years to become a full grown adult, has repeatedly in his “actions and inactions” made it clear he doesn’t identify with being black. If he’s not a black man, why should we make him one?

Tiger Woods distanced himself from being black despite his father, Earl Woods, being a black man who married his mother, Kultida, a native of Thailand.

In a blazing attempt to distance himself from blackness, Tiger Woods coined the term “Cablinasian,” which he said was to describe his multiracial identity. That was the excuse he gave during his appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. It’s one thing to acknowledge that you are multiracial, but downplaying the fact that you’re black in an attempt to get away from being associated with the African diaspora is foolish. Regardless of the fact that black is a social construct, it’s foolish to disassociate yourself from being black in American society. We’re talking about an American society with a racist reality and systemically racist system that judges black men and black women harshly based on the color of their skin.

Here is a man who once said he would love to win the Augusta Masters for black people, but immediately he won his first Masters in 1997, he suddenly doesn’t want to be called “black” anymore but “Cablinasian.” This man has never for once said he is black and proud of it. He never stood up for the black race at any time, nor has he ever bothered to answer to Eldrick (his native birth name). Instead, he has chosen to be called who he is today—a man with no defined attachment to his predominant racial roots. While these are all his choices, choices he is certainly entitled to, ultimately no one is losing sleep over it.

The fact is, things need to be put into perspective. It needs to be understood why black people really don’t need to adopt a Tiger Woods victory as a “black people victory.” It is very nonsensical and outright goofy to see some black people posting Tiger Woods pictures all over their social media pages while chanting that his recent Augusta Masters Golf Tournament victory is for the black community. It’s nonsense, and it carries zero weight. You can’t force a man to become someone he doesn’t want to be.

Tiger Woods Has Been Labeled A Sellout For A Reason

During an interview with John Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter of the New York Times, Tiger Woods was asked to comment about the issue of race relations in the US. To the surprise of all, Woods replied by saying “No. I just rounded up 72 holes, and I’m feeling very hungry.” A “black man” who has no comments regarding the racial climate in this country has no business being seen as some poster child for black people. Period.

Tiger Woods is a man who has spent the majority of his adult life distancing himself from black people, yet there are those who embrace him just because he won a game. Of course, we love comebacks, and that is understandable. But, when the same man you feel is your brother turns out to be a “sellout,” then we have to face that reality and treat him accordingly. Tiger Woods is seen as a sellout for a reason. Anyone who insists on being identified as “mixed” rather than his father’s direct racial background is not someone that needs to be elevated as some black hero.

When former president Barack Obama was criticized for marking the only black option on the census form, he wasn’t speculating in his remarks when he said that most of the mixed people he has met who insist on creating the multiracial label gives him serious concern because “they often put much effort in distancing themselves away from other blacks.” This much is evident in the life and times of Tiger Woods.

By coining the term “Cablinasian,” Woods openly declared during his interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show that he doesn’t want to be identified as black but as multiracial. The fact that none of the women involved in his infidelity escapades was a woman of color, it does lend credence to the fact that he was distancing himself from anyone black. While who he has slept with is really no one’s business, it is public knowledge and it is worth remembering this fact when it comes to who Tiger Woods is.

Like OJ Simpson, Tiger Woods rejection of the black community can be seen as treasonable offense against the black race (depending on who you talk to), and those singing his praises on behalf of the black community are only wasting their time and megabytes online on a person who doesn’t want to identify with black people in America.

In this rare, unedited video interview recorded in 1990 (notice the time mark around 3:45 – 4:04), Tiger Woods answers a question about feeling prejudice/racism. He saw himself as black back then and acknowledged that he feels the racial problem. He knew that he was black and identified as such back then in that interview. But, when he won his first Masters glory, he changed his tune in 1997 on the Oprah interview. So, today, it isn’t’ surprising Woods no longer has comments on race relations in the US. If you can’t see that, then there’s nothing more that needs to be said.

Black Empowerment Is All About Identity                

You cannot empower or inspire what you don’t believe in, or be empowered by what you are not connected to.

Black empowerment is the empowerment of black economics. It is the push for black independence and self-sufficiency. It is about being self-sufficient and being able to succeed as a group without dependence on white power structures.

But a man who feels he can’t play and rule the (white man’s) golf game while being black, as such that he had to stop identifying with his roots, doesn’t believe in the black empowerment project nor can he inspire others within it.

Only a black person who is truly about black empowerment can be the best representative of black empowerment.

The everyday black entrepreneurs who seek to uplift black people through their actions/business is what truly represents black empowerment.

Tiger Woods’ net worth is $400 million, and Nike is worth 1.9 billion. Neither of them represents black people or black empowerment of any kind, nor do they care to. Woods with his huge network doesn’t uplift or inspire anyone in the black community because he never believed in it nor identified with it.

A black entrepreneur who believes in black empowerment doesn’t spend his life distancing himself from his people.

Successful companies founded by black entrepreneurs more so defines black empowerment than Tiger Woods. Black empowerment should be about the upliftment of black people through strong black economics. Robust black economic infrastructure should provide blacks with opportunities that will enhance their way of life. But the ones that decide to distance themselves from the black community shouldn’t be embraced when they achieve individual success.

Tiger Woods has always distanced himself from being black, so he shouldn’t be seen or embraced as a representative or a poster child of some kind for black people.

Our black historical figures are the Afrikans that black people genuinely need to look at for inspiration — not someone who doesn’t identify with being an Afrikan.

When the rapper, The Game said recently that America would crumble if we (blacks) were to move back to Africa, he was alluding to the economic spending power of African Americans, which has now surpassed the entire economy of Spain. Black people that believe in black identity are those that made this possible today, not someone like Tiger Woods.

However, while black people have tremendous CONSUMER power (which is not a real power that truly empowers black people), black people have to have tremendous PRODUCER power. Someone like Tiger Woods can never inspire such productive power in the black men and black women who want real black progress.

Tiger Woods doesn’t live the reality of the everyday black person. Outside of his wealth, he just never saw himself to be one. The black man and black woman who are black and proud and have a business of their own are the black people who can truly represent black empowerment.