They Don’t Care About Us
Eldrick (Tiger) Woods
“All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us!” I don’t care whether they call us… African-American, black, people of color or even the N-word, it boggles my mind that in the United States there is still a culture set on destroying anyone of us who gains a tremendous degree of fame and fortune. I suppose boggle is not the verb I should use because I am not overwhelmed or bewildered; I am angry as hell.
I can assure you that my anger is nowhere near the intense level of anger the man standing at the center of this very vivid controversy feels about his own transgressions. In fact, I firmly believe the man deeply regrets many of the decisions he has made in his personal life over the past few years, however, that is a different story for another time.
For the most part, it seems the celebrity of blacks who obtain their fortune through sports and entertainment is the root cause of the tremendous discord deeply embedded in the psyche of White America… though they are loathe to admit it. And, of course, this celebrity places them under an unnerving degree of scrutiny whether they like it or not.
For more than 10 days now, there has been a media frenzy building around an incident that took place in the private life of Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, the son of a black father and an Asian mother. Tiger Woods knows he is an African-American -just being based upon the U.S. one drop rule, however because of his mixed heritage he made a conscience decision to blend into the country club sports network of golf where his athletic prowess is recognized.
If we are to believe everything presented to us by the media, we now know that a bevy of unscrupulous females have emerged as either a one time or current mistress of Tiger Woods, even during his not-so-acceptable marriage to a former Swedish model. The “breaking news” gets more bizarre with each passing day, and is based on pure speculation. Respected news media are giving ‘top story’ status to any rumors coming in from sources whether they are reliable or not.
Tom Joyner’s Morning Show is having a field day making fun of Tiger Woods and what these recent events –whether pure speculation or not, may have done to Woods’ clean image. This is where the verb boggle can be put to good use. The insensitivity of the comedy pouring through the radio boggles my mind because it fuels the speculation and negativity to the point that both tabloid print and television media have requested interviews with Joyner. Were the interviews requests looking for an honest assessment of the situation, or because Joyner -a black man- openly made comedic fun of Tiger’s dilemma? I actually had to turn the radio off.
We have followed Tiger Woods since his childhood, just as we followed the career of another child prodigy who achieved celebrity, fame and fortune, and channeled his fortune into caring, universal causes until the media began tearing him down. Although the alleged ‘unscrupulous’ behavior was different from the speculation surrounding Tiger Woods, it was still the beginning of his downfall.
As long as Black America doesn’t pose any type of threat to White America we can make as much money, gain as much celebrity, and even try our best to assimilate their culture. It’s almost like the slave master and the overseer (media) mentality weighing in to bring them down if they get too uppity. Let us just suppose the accident that started all this was at the home of Phil Mickelson. What would the media do with that story?
Tiger Woods is on the threshold of meeting and breaking the record of one of the golf world’s greats –Jack Nicklaus, and has surpassed many long standing achievements dating back to 1913. He, along with his father, developed the Tiger Woods Foundation which is dedicated to children offering character development programs, scholarships, grants, junior golf teams, and the Tiger Woods Learning Center. The Foundation is helping young people reach their goals.
Tiger Woods Design is a business venture slated to design and build golf courses in three locations around the world. Three are currently in the works… Dubai, North Carolina and Mexico.
The tragedy here is the media –because of ratings, which of course translates to dollars, has created such a rush to judgment that a feeding frenzy beyond comprehension has brought people crawling out of the woodwork to stake a claim on Tiger the golfer, not the man. The root of all the attention is based upon something that is personal to Tiger and his family, and need not be addressed in the media.
Laughing at ourselves helps make our societal journey a little easier, given the many obstacles we as a people face every day. We must, however, be very careful about the perception we give our oppressor –and yes, as long as one group feels they are superior to another there will be oppression. The tone of media spin at a time like this plays right into their hands, and we provide even more fodder by our own insensitive actions in the midst of this madness.
Whether all or part of Tiger Wood’s situation is of his own making is not important, especially since he has not broken any laws –just perhaps gone against some people’s moral values. Each of us have our own demons and we are hard pressed to cast a sinless stone in anyone’s direction. The thing we cannot allow is a white controlled media to continue spinning rumors and creating stories based on speculation and innuendo, or the voices of money grabbers looking for a huge payday and their 15 minutes of fame.
If the other child prodigy were alive today this is what he’d have to say. Tiger, take a listen.
“Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible because you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now
I’m tired of bein’ the victim of shame
They’re throwing me in a class with a bad name
I can’t believe this is the land from which I came
You know I do really hate to say it
The government don’t wanna see
But if Roosevelt was livin’
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, speculation
Everybody litigation
Beat me, bash me
You can never trash me
Hit me, kick me
You can never get me
All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us”
Lyrics: They Don’t Care About Us, written and composed by Michael Jackson, MiJac Music (BMI), MJJ Productions, Inc.
© 2009 Sharon Moore Stenhouse – All Rights Reserved
