Tiger yesterday, now, and forever

As of the close of the third round in this weekend’s PGA match at the Whistling Straights golf club in Wisconsin, 23 players had scores better than Tiger Woods, ranging from the leader, Nick Watney, at 13 under par, to seven players tied at five under par. Woods was tied with ten other players at four under par. So Woods was either behind or no better than a total of 33 other players. But for Mike Lupica at the New York Daily News (of whom I once said that he is “standing proof that sports journalists are among the most extreme liberals in the country, the most bent out of shape about race”), Woods is still the world’s biggest sports star, and ought to be the center of attention always, whether he’s winning a match or far back in the field, as he is at Whistling Straights. Sounds like sort of a cult rather than sports journalism, doesn’t it? And would Lupica be fanning the flames of that cult if Woods were, you know, white?

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David B. writes:

You ask: “And would Lupica be fanning the flames of that cult if Woods were, you know, white?”

I confess that hasn’t occurred to me until now. Let’s suppose Tiger Woods was from a white middle class background and had been as good a golfer as the actual Woods.

A white Tiger Woods would have been celebrated by the sports media, but nowhere near as much as the biracial Woods. Not even close. I don’t think a white Woods would have been considered the world’s top athlete. I believe Woods’ mixed race ancestry, and his black ancestry especially, is the main part of his appeal to sports journalists, corporate sponsors, and many fans.

I am sure of one thing. If a white version of Tiger Woods had been caught in sexual misbehavior of this kind, the sports media would have come down on him incomparably harder than they have on the actual Tiger Woods. With Woods, they have been openly rooting for him to win again, and acting as if the other golfers don’t exist.

We have noted that sports journalists are often extreme liberals. They will fawn over black athletes while being very critical of any failings by white athletes. I have seen this for decades.

Ben W. writes:

I keep seeing stories about Woods’s golfing performance—even when he is almost last in the field. I keep seeing Woods’s face in television commercials for golf tournaments. Why?

Same reason we keep seeing all these black faces in commercials—the media NEEDS the presence of a black persona in ALL of America’s images to promote the society of integration.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 15, 2010 02:22 PM | Send