As Tiger Woods dodges one bullet after another, in the form of women with unfortunately dirty little secrets, a discussion is rumbling throughout the African American community in the USA. With Woods’s Swedish wife in the background and a string of Caucasian women telling tales of hair pulling, a Big Question has emerged; why does he only go for white women?
One joke response (and we all know jokes are simply humourously put morsels of truth) has been that a black woman would castrate him for cheating (whereas white women just use golf clubs and indeed irony as their weapon of choice). All jokes aside, the offence taken to Tiger’s preference for/attraction to, white women, is clear. Inter-racial relationships, it would seem, despite constant calls for people to accept them as possible and valid as any other kind of relationship, are fine to defend passionately when a Priest refuses to marry one, but not okay when a pattern emerges of a fondness for a race not your own.
The message is quite simply that Tiger Woods is black, therefore his penchant for white women is somewhat unacceptable and inherently offensive. Marrying a white woman is one thing – but being repeatedly attracted to them? Clearly quite another.
But hang on a second. Tiger Woods is half Thai. His mother is Thai (with Chinese and Dutch ancestry), his father African American (with Chinese and Native American ancestry). Now, humour me, because I want to start nitpicking at something that irritates me about the seemingly instinctive need for people to racially categorise those of mixed race and privilege one race over the other. According to Wikipedia, if you break it down, Woods is equal parts Chinese, African American and Thai. Which technically makes him more Asian than African American.
So why the raised brows in the African American communities and the denouncing of his female preferences for not being black? Why aren’t the Asian-Americans getting their knickers in a knot about the lack of Asian women in his romantic (term used loosely) past? And what is it about Wood’s racial make-up that dictates his partners must be of a particular race? His appearance? His media status as a black, boundary breaking athlete? Or an inability on the part of all races, to live and let live with people’s sexual and romantic choices.
Bi-racial and mixed-racial issues are interesting, if not rather knotty. As aforementioned, there seems to always emerge a dominant one of the two races which defines how that person is racially categorized – and often, not necessarily on the part of the subject, rather by how that person is seen by others. Barack Obama, whose mother was white, is black. Alicia Keys, whose mother is white, is black. And Tiger Woods, whose mother is Asian, is black. Now, why this tendency to privilege one race over another in someone’s heritage, exists, I’m not entirely sure – I’m sure there are primal and psychological reasons for it because we all do it. And it is clearly also a result of infinite layers of historical, social, political, cultural and religious reasons – I completely understand that, and I am far too ill-equipped to even begin unraveling them.
But the fact is, this tendency exists, and not just within African American and Caucasian communities and not just within the USA; and it fuels fiery discussions which reveal, when it comes to the crunch, a somewhat instinctive reluctance to live and let live with inter-racial relationships.
Please, comment …
Great article! Being half Malaysian-Chinese and half white myself, I felt this article really voiced some of my own thoughts. It’s funny how people tend to categorise other racially, and in many cases, as the ‘other.’ For instance, my white friends usually see me as the token asian – which can mean anything – Japanese, mainland Chinese seem rather common if rather different, whilst my asian friends often see me as the ‘western’ girl. You can’t win!
A really thought-provoking article – wasn’t sure where you were going at first, but an interesting take on the whole thing.
Though we are messy, smelly, polluting creatures, we can’t go past a good category. Often it appears we are more intent on making someone fit a category, than creating a category fit them.
Why IS Tiger typified as black? Is it because Asian Americans are more of a minority that African Americans? Is it because the redemptive notion of an African American rising to the top of a predominantly white sport is a more powerful symbol?
Dora, think you’ve got it in one with the latter – the redemptive notion and powerful symbolism.
It’s interesting to note Woods himself has never really acknowledged being of one race, he has always acknowledged his Asian heritage and is indeed Buddhist. It appears to be the greater public’s and the media’s need to annoint him as the redemptive African American figure.
Interesting article….
I think that the celebs you mention (and may I add Halle Berry to that list who was single handedly raised by her white mother) are described as ‘black’ because that’s how white society sees them. As everyone else has said, white people categorise people as the ‘other’ when they look / act differently from themselves, despite them being half white half asian etc. It just highlights how tough it must be to be bi-racial and to be constantly labelled and categorised. Then I guess you tend to identify with the community that embraces you and even see yourself as ‘black’, ‘asian’ etc.
I also think that being attracted to a certain type (in my case tall dark men) is not racist. Physical attraction is so intangible and personal, no-one should be attacked for that!
I think white people aren’t the only ones to categorise here.
I have two quick points.
Firstly, Tiger is attracted to white women because they are far better looking than black women. No offence. In addition, what black woman do you know can keep her mouth shut?! She would be down getting her hair and nails done at the beauty salon shooting her mouth off to her friends about how shes having an affair with Tiger. Or her big black gangsta brothers who had just gotten out of prison would try and extort Tiger or produce video footage of their sister and Tiger having sex. If Tiger is unwilling to pay the ransom they would simply release it on the Internet and make squllions that way. So that is why Tiger prefers to get off with the white woman.
Secondly, Tiger is considered black because thats the part of him that makes him an exceptional athlete. Asians are typically crap at sports. No doubt his Chinese and Thai traits provide him with the discipline to become a world class athlete BUT its the African in him that provides the talent.
I also just wanted to point out that his affairs are still only rumours. Nothing has been proven. Also, that wives of superstars know what they are getting themselves into when they get married. They are prepared to put up with the cheating in return for the kids and lifestyle. Dont forget that if she walks away from the marriage she gets a cool $300 million…for $300 million I would send a few hookers to Tigers apart and force the affair upon him!
@A Male Perspective:
Racist, sexist and ignorant much?
Behold my summation of your argumentative powers as represented in comic form: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
Just sayin’
What a fabulous satire on stereotypical perceptions of race and gender. A nuanced, committed encapsulation of so many social problems.
Am I correct in assuming you’re joking ‘Male Perspective’? That you’re just that witty?
Liv, I’m sure I’ve had this conversation with you before (but about religion), and it applies here too. I can be completely naive and oblivious to these issues (at least in my own life) and I’m always so taken aback when I see things like this pop up in someone elses life.
If you go back far enough we’re all from somewhere else, have an ancestor from a different nationality/race to the one we currently associate ourselves with, and of course we were all once monkeys. Sometimes I think we still are.
One other thing you might want to take into account: 9 times out of 10, we’re more likely to take visible race over ethnic race. It’s just the way the human cognition works, regardless of whether you’re white or Asian or black or Martian, and it’s how society is/has been conditioned. And let’s face it, Tiger looks more African American than he does Asian American, hence why the black community uphold (upheld? lololol) him on such a pedestal.
Awesome job tackling a sensitive issue – most writers probably wouldn’t have the balls to do so due to a tendency to raise the PC flag. This reminds me a bit of John Safran, but that’s another tangent altogether. And um, yeah @ MALE PERSPECTIVE – folks, don’t feed the troll =]
It is a legitimate question to ask why Tiger seems only to be attracted to white women. I would assume that the golfing circles he was raised in and mixes in would contain many more whites than other races. He probably developed a predilection for blondes from a young age so has gone for the same “type” each time. Personally I would prefer a little variety, but you can’t criticise him for that.
As to him being identified as black, this has its origins in the troubled racial legacy of the US. According to the “one-drop” rule, anyone with even a 16th of African ancestry was classified as black. No matter how you chose to identify yourself personally, by the law of the land you were black and therefore discriminated against and disenfranchised. There were cases of “passing off” (see Philip Roth’s The Human Stain) but understandably black people would often react negatively to a member of their own community trying to “pass” as a white. I think this explains why Tiger – a successful, ground-breaking pioneer, was so eagerly claimed as black. Asians being later arrivals to the American racial mix don’t share this legacy, but with changing demographics and Obama’s election this is surely set to change.