The blackening of Tiger Woods, since his martial problem began in November, has been overstated by the media. It is clear, in America, if a person has anything other than “pure” white characteristics or, so much as a drop of “other” within their blood, that person is black! So, the commentary that Tiger is going through a “Negro” initiation, is essentially claiming that, as Americans, we live in a post-racial world. *FAIL* Tigers knows he is black, evident in his invention of a new race, Cablinasian, as Tiger proclaimed himself to be in 1997. It does not get any more transparent than that, proclaiming yourself as a transcendent racial “other,” to make sure everyone thinking person knows you are aware of deep prejudices in America. Racial politics unquestionably materialized into his reality and permeated Tiger’s consciousness enough for him to address his race.
But, in my humble opinion, imagining oneself in a metaphysical way, suggests a eternalization of stereotypical American male trope of individualism. Therefore, envisioning himself as an all-powerful super-force of change is standard behavior for a MAN in Tiger’s position--a “black” athlete in an exclusively all-white dominated sport. The hopes (sponsorship) and desires (commercials) of the corporatocracy and their obedient consumers are placed on the shoulders of this exotic Cablinasian--to take them to an otherworldly space where they can discharge all the pinned up tension created by the American racial politics. All of this excrement creates a odorless stench that reinforces Tiger’s stature as the ideal male. Conversely, Tiger’s inability to smell himself lets arrogance and isolation grow into piles of masculine weeds that choke the life out of his passion--golf.
Tiger, fortunately, lost his cloak of untouchability in the media by letting his infidelities seep through the “paper thin” wall he created which in turn, affected his marriage to Elin Woods. I say fortunately because, I can see how lonely Tiger was in his statement and how much he suffers, not from being a racial “other,” but from what remains the underpinning to his saga, the male stereotype.
“Winning at all costs,” “hiding one’s emotions,” “compete intensely,” and, “earning the big bucks” are all tropes of what author, Doug Cooper Thompson observes as the, “code of conduct” that governs the male stereotype. Thompson believes males unconsciously identify with this type of socialization and he warns, “[...] when we look more closely, we find that many males who do ‘buy‘ the message [...] end up paying a very high price for their conformity.” Tiger’s penalty for his submission to the male stereotype will ultimately end with his being enslaved to the American corporate interests. Furthermore, corporate media (ESPN) will encase him in a box set in the sub-realist realm of the consumer-driven news-entertainment field; consequently, leading the corporate media’s slave overseers to release their jealousy in the form of “objective” journalism.
The simulacrum of Tiger Woods, a human corporation, wholeheartedly reinforces the meaning of the male stereotype. The tragic part of this story is how lonely Tiger must have felt within his marriage. This man, Tiger Woods, who exhibits all the most desirable characteristics the American imagination projects as the ideal masculine athlete, could not bring himself to share the most intimate details of his life with the person he sleeps and shares children with; how harrowing! Again, I say his mistakes were fortunate, in the sense that, Tiger can hopefully begin to heal from his blind allegiance to the male stereotype, and preserve the relationships outside the narrow box of masculinity, which unfortunately, his professional career will most certainly be indebted to-- forever.
