By the time most of you read this post, Tiger Woods will have made his highly anticipated statement regarding the events surrendering his famous November automobile crash and all the allegations that have since surfaced. And the truth is, to my way of thinking, it doesn't matter much what he says. He will be talking to basically three groups of people: those who are against him; those who support him; and those who wonder what is going on in the real world. I belong to the third group.
Listen, there are several dynamics at play that make up the whole Tiger Woods scandal. Most of it has little to do with Tiger sleeping around. In America, an athlete not being faithful to his spouse is as surprising as a politician not being faithful. It happens, it happens a lot and many people know about it.
So what is all the uproar about and why is Tiger Woods' statement so anticipated? The Woods scandal is more about lies people tell. Not Tiger, but the public. Tiger has to go out there before the public and crawl on his belly before America. He has to play the game. He has to be "contrite." He has to admit he was deceptive. He has to do all of this to get back into the money game. So be it.
But the lies we tell are more revealing. His critics say he was paid billions because of his squeaky clean image. Lie number one. You see. We all know that nobody is perfect. Nobody! And yet, we root for Tiger and buy things associated with his name and tell ourselves the lie that we do this because he is so "clean."
And they tell us that Tiger Woods gave up his right to privacy when he accepted all that money from sponsors. Lie number two. If money is the measure of a persons right to privacy than a person who is very poor should have no privacy. They would not be entitled to any. Privacy is a human and legal right. It is not determined by how much money you make.
It took comedian Chris Rock to point out the difference between being rich and being wealthy. He said Shaq is rich; the man who wrote Shaq that check is wealthy! Who is that man? Shouldn't we know his name since more money means less privacy?Lie number three? Tiger (or any athlete) is a role model. Nonsense. Many dominating athletes are pampered and emotionally unbalanced because they spend most of their waking hours playing a game. How can they possibly develop into a well balanced person when they become obsessed with chasing a dead end dream- of making the pros- that is sold to mostly African American youth. They don't, in many cases, obtain an education and end up on a street corner somewhere in heart brake America.
And the biggest lie of all: We are no longer a racist society, we elected a Black President. My friends, Obama is in the White House and Black People are still getting kicked in the butt by the police, discriminated against in health care, jobs, mortgages and education. But also, in sports. Their are a lot of people in America who simple want to see this young, brash, rich, Blackman crawl on his belly. And that, more than any other reason, fueled this media frenzy.
Tiger Woods is a knuckle head. He did his wife wrong. But you know what? Millions of people around the world are starving or dieing from unclean water, disease or war. And I don't give a rats behind about what Tiger does in his personal life. I want him to hit good shots on the golf course. I want my favorite artist to paint, singer to sing. That is all they owe me.
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