Afro-Netizen

Tiger Woods' choice of paramours: "Catch a tiger by the . . ."

By Imani Perry

Guest Contributor

It's the elephant in the room.

Almost all of Tiger Wood’s rumored infidelities are with white women. No one is saying it, but everyone is showing it, by repeatedly displaying the multiple images of the multiple women. “Tiger likes white women”  can be “said” without being “said.” Journalists don’t want to say it because we aren’t supposed to care what color a person’s partners are anymore. But of course we sill care and the journalists know that!

Tiger Woods is an interesting personality when it comes to race. He was lauded by some and treated with skepticism by others for his insistent refusal to identify as “just black.” He vigorously claimed his multiracial heritage. He famously told Oprah the name he had given himself “Cablinasian” a designation so individual so as to make it not a reference to a group, but just to himself. Tiger was "post-racial" before post-racial was cool.

So, what are we to make of this racial performance? It is a show so old that even thinking about it is exhausting.  Americans fear of and fascination with the idea of Black men having sexual desire for white women has a long and miserable history in the United States. It is tied to lynching. It is tied to sexism and racism at the same time. It is tied to stereotypes of black hyper-sexuality and  animalistic lust. It is tied to the fall from grace of more than one public figure.

One way of interpreting this media spectacle is to consider how Tiger’s infidelities might be seen in certain quarters as evidence that no matter how assimilated and clean cut a black man might seem, there is always the danger that underneath it all he is little more than a walking stereotype. That is what the always incendiary Rush Limbaugh has said about the Tiger Woods affair(s). This is a particularly dramatic moment for such an image to come to the fore of American culture, right as the  country’s collective love affair with President Obama is increasingly strained over the war, the recession, and health reform.

Given how frequently Americans have fallen out of love with a black hero, and how often it has been through the association of said heroes with stereotypes, we have to wonder if Barack Obama, a politician who was called “The Tiger Woods” of politics by some, is suffering from some questions about whether his “true colors” are going to show. After all, gossip rags have been running stories claiming that Obama has a secret white female or male lover. It Is hard to imagine such stories having truth, given the eager mudslinging in Washington, it would have been quite a feat to prevent evidence of such affairs from leaking. I think the rumors say more about our latent fears than any reality.

But with respect to the Tiger Woods fiasco on the other hand, there is very good evidence supporting the claim that he was not only a cheater, but a sloppy one. His indiscretion reveals either naivete, stupidity or a delusional sense of his power over the women with whom he was involved. And  I think, without getting into the mind and heart of Tiger Woods, the parade of women, the parade of white women, if nothing else says, we are far from post racial.

A man who identifies as a member of three non-white racial groups, but appears to have little to no sexual desire (and who appears to act on his every sexual desire) for women of any of those non-white racial groups is a product of history whether he likes it or not. From the 18th through mid 20th century, standards of idealized white beauty were promulgated around the world, and those standards of beauty reflected the ideology of white supremacy that was used to justify the domination and exploitation of non-white people.

We live with the residue of that history in our ongoing beauty cultures and ideals, not just in the United States but in many places around the world.  Even though individual women of color have become beauty icons, the normative ideal remains white and blonde and blue-eyed. I am sure some readers will respond, “Tiger just has a type, it isn’t racial.” Well, with the exception of two who look like his wife, all of the women actually look very different. What unifies them is their race. That’s his type: white.

(There is the one counter example of Jaimee Grubbs, a  half Native American woman who claims to have had an affair with Woods. Grubbs grew up on a Colville Indian Reservation, and reportedly has given interviews in which she has shared her racist stereotypes about, and disaffection for Native Americans. But I digress.)

That said, I would never suggest that Tiger Woods has any obligation to display any racial loyalty to any of the racial groups to which he belongs.  I think those politics are not useful. Performing loyalty when it isn’t felt, is both sad and lacks meaning. Nor do I think loyalty is necessarily displayed through sexual partnerships. There are many people who have been of service to their communities while partnering interracially and many who have partnered with people of their group and been a destructive force within that group.

Tiger Woods has and should continue to be with women he finds attractive (although ideally without the lying and cheating). But our collective fascination with that collective of women, and his own fascination with them, is yet another sign that our racial past continues to impact our racial present.

Imani Perry, PhD, JD is an author and professor at Princeton University's Center for African American Studies (CAAS).

An open letter to Caster Semenya

Stephany R. Spaulding

Guest Contributor

An Open Letter to Caster Semenya

Dear Caster,

My heart breaks and bosom aches for the shock of inhumanity you are being forced to see in this moment.  If I could right now, I would gently pull you into my arms and cradle you as my child.  I would blanket you in the comfort of knowing that you are of a people who are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Fearful in that when other’s epistemologies are too minimalistic to understand our existence, they have sought to devalue and diminish it.  Yet wonderful we are, for we live knowing it has never been about us, but an obsession with validating irrationally supercilious ideologies.

If I could, I would bend your chin and connect with your eyes and beg you to allow me to make amends for the things I have let my memory erase.  I would bathe you in a wash tub of tears as the century of years return unto me—remembering the persisting global attacks on Black women’s bodies.

I would kneel down with you and cry out libations for Saartjie and offer humble apologies for all the time expended before we could finally give her rest.  I would mourn all the names that cannot be recalled, lost to the hypocrisy of Western medicine vested in white supremacy, for as slaves stripped of human dignity we were sacrificed upon the alter of modern gynecology.

If I could, right now I would hold on to you for dear life and reassure you that you do not have to choose to do anything other than live.  No one could ever strip you of the victories you have and will continue to win, for our glory is not of man.  In the short time of your living, you are teaching of the deep sense of courage, honor, and dignity that is our legacy.

With love that is all powerful, patient and kind, I would rescue you from this diabolical global attack. I would show you how wrong many are in believing it takes the presence of ovaries to be a daughter, “normalized” levels of estrogen to be a sister, or the opening of a womb to be a mother.

But Caster, most importantly, I earnestly plead that you allow me to shoulder this cross with you because I can.  From across the ocean and spanning global miles, I reach out to you for the daughter you are and for all of our daughters to come.

Sincerely,

Stephany Rose
 

Stephany R. Spaulding is a an assistant professor of English who teaches literature and critical race theory at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Afro-Netizen contacted Prof. Spaulding immediately upon reading an e-mail message (forwarded to us by a long-time supporter) that contained the above open letter -- which was prefaced by the following note . . .

On this day that many of us will say "good morning" several times, I am deeply troubled.  I am troubled by the reality of the space and communities in which we live, where I can wake up to tweets and facebook statuses ranting about the apology and protection we should be demanding for a country pop star, who one person (as ignorant in his behavior that he may have been) did not find should have been named the most popular for the year.  I am troubled because for the last month our daughter and our sister has been globally brutalized, yet the tweets and statuses demanding her protection and respect of her humanity have been far and few between.  Thus, I wake up this morning in an effort to make it a "good" one with a public letter to Caster Semenya.  If you agree, this will be the email that you circulate throughout your "friends database" today.  If you believe in globally protecting the humanity of black women's bodies, then you can number and add your name to the count.
 
Be and live well,

Stephany R. Spaulding, Ph.D.

Remembering Jack Johnson: Republican lawmakers seek to gain posthumous pardon for boxing great

 

"Boxing has fallen into disfavor. . . The reason is clear: Jack Johnson . . . has out-sparred an Irishman. He did it with little brutality, the utmost fairness and great good nature. He did not "knock" his opponent senseless. . . Neither he nor his race invented prize fighting or particularly like it. Why then this thrill of national disgust? Because Johnson is black. Of course some pretend to object to Johnson's character. But we have yet to hear, in the case of White America, that marital troubles have disqualified prize fighters or ball players or even statesmen. It comes down, then, after all to this unforgivable blackness."

--W.E.B. DuBois, The Crisis (1914)

By David Whettstone

For the Afro-Netizen Newswire

March 31st was John Arthur Johnson's birthday. 

Jack Johnson, the first African American to become Heavyweight Champion of the World, was born in Galveston, Texas in 1878.   He held his title from 1908 to 1915.  His ascendancy put an indelible mark on the landscape of American history and sport.  It came with the great price of persecution, adversity, and violence -- some of it federally sanctioned.

Some skeptics would not initially assume that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Peter King (R-NY) would be part of the cause to right the wrongs the barrier-breaking boxer endured.  However, they have together (as in previous sessions of Congress since 2004) introduced a resolution calling for the posthumous presidential pardon of the racially motivated conviction of Johnson in 1913 under the Mann Act.

They are both motivated to repair national reputation and by their life-long love for boxing.  Representative King still works out in the ring.

They join the call of Mr. Johnson's family (grandneice Dorothy Cross, great grandniece Linda Haywood, and others) and filmmaker Ken Burns, director of the PBS documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson for justice.  Burns has in the past petition Congress for such a resolution.

At the April 1, 2009 press conference, Ms. Haywood said, "For years our family was deeply shamed."  She continues, "He simply wanted to live his life."

(Photo credit: David Whettstone. Pictured from l to r: Linda Haywood, Ken Burns, Dorothy Cross, Johnson's grand niece, seated)

In its early American history, boxing was established as the exclusive domain of White men.  Black men were considered unworthy of competition.  They were not permitted to vie for the title.  In 1903, Johnson had defeated "Denver" Ed Martin to win the "Colored Heavyweight Championship". He then secured his world crown in 1908 by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia and capturing an unmatched purse of $30,000 for the 14-round fight.  The previous heavyweight champion, Jim Jeffries, had retired rather than fight Johnson.

With Johnson's new reign, and shock to the psyche of most White U.S. men, came the counter-punch of deeply embedded racism.  Calls went out from media -- especially from writer Jack London -- and many sectors of society for a "Great White Hope."  Jeffries was eventually coaxed to engage Johnson in "The Fight of the Century" in Reno, Nevada on July 4, 1910.

Before a crowd of 12,000 mostly White men, Jeffries met defeat in 15 rounds of brutal physical punishment.  Johnson won a hefty record-breaking sum of $101,000.  Race riots ensued, and numerous  African Americans met with harm and death. And Congress acted.

It banned the interstate distribution of fight films which would not be lifted until 1940.  "The Fight of the Century" became part of the National Film Registry in 2005.

Johnson's romantic engagement of White women and subsequent controversial marriages met with the consternation and alarm of many.

Earlier in June 1910, President Taft had signed into law the White Slave Traffic Act, also known as the Mann Act. The legislation was a result of the wave of social concern and hysteria.  It prohibited the interstate transportation of women "for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose."  The U.S. Department of Justice soon sought to apply the law to Johnson though no viable case was developed until 1912.  By 1913 a conviction was gained.

Also in 1912, Georgia Congressman Seaborn A. Roddenberry introduced a constitutional amendment that would ban marriage between whites and "any and all persons of African descent or having any trace of African blood." The bill failed.

After being sentenced, Johnson fled the country, but voluntarily returned in 1920 to serve a year in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. 

Forces of the established order were clearly against him. However, he continued to have an active life: he received a patent for an invention while incarcerated; established a nightclub in Chicago and sold another in Harlem which evolved into The Cotton Club; raced cars; and continued fighting into the 1930s.  He met with a tragic auto accident near Raleigh, North Carolina in 1946.

Representative Peter King believes a pardon of Jack Johnson is long overdue and is part of fully restoring his reputation.  "Despite the accusations, he became a heavyweight legend who inspired and paved the way for future African American athletes."  He rightly understands the champion as a trailblazer. 

"The resolution to pardon Jack Johnson would not right this injustice, but would recognize it, and shed light on the achievements of an athlete who was forced into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice, " said Sen. McCain.  "Taking such actions would allow future generations to grasp fully what Jack Johnson accomplished against great odds and appreciate his contributions to society unencumbered by the taint of his criminal conviction."

The senator believes that President Obama has the greatest respect and admiration for Jack Johnson and plans to talk to him.  He was fully confident that the President would sign the resolution into law.

When he released his documentary, Ken Burns said:

"Johnson in many ways is an embodiment of the African-American struggle to be truly free in this country — economically, socially and politically. He absolutely refused to play by the rules set by the white establishment, or even those of the black community. In that sense, he fought for freedom not just as a black man, but as an individual."

Often Johnson has been quoted as stating he simply wanted to be respected as a man.

The embrace of Mr. Johnson in the heart and minds of many African Americans -- whether athlete or not -- is already well established.  Undoubtedly, he foreshadowed Muhammad Ali.  Both he and Joe Frazier have talked and agreed that Johnson was one of the greatest of all time.  For folks like them, oppression and injustice have not marred Johnson's reputation.   His representation and legacy are nothing short of iconic -- a mystical conveyance of unrelenting determination, unremitting power, and triumphant agency.

"He made us very proud," said Linda Haywood. "Out of all the people on the face of the earth, God gave him to us, our family."

David M. Whettstone is a Washington, DC-based public policy advocate and writer, who works on national and local issues (including civil rights and criminal justice) and with religious and community-based organizations.