Tiger Woods has changed right before our eyes. He was once an American hero, and has been since reduced (to many) to be a no good, dirty, lying, cheating dog. Tiger now comes off to some as a typical oversexed athlete who can’t keep his you-know-what in his pants and makes it his job to break women’s hearts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you hate Tiger Woods, then join the club. I am disappointed in Tiger Woods too.
But it’s time to move on from that. Tiger is better than this and so are we. Yes, Tiger Woods appears to be a man with a “complicated” lifestyle, but he is also a man who found a way to achieve things that no human being in the history of the world has ever been able to accomplish. He has carried the banner for African American golf on his shoulders and single-handedly beat the living crap out of hundreds of other participants in an historically racist sport. He was Barack Obama before Barack came along. Tiger filled us with hope and made us believe that black people could do anything.
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I don’t know about you, but I am personally done Tiger-bashing. I am emotionally drained from reading about porn stars, car accidents, domestic violence and every other tid bit of information delivered to the world by TMZ helicopters. I don’t want to see another mistress, for I am sure there are others out there, and I don’t care that they are all white: If Tiger can’t see the beauty in black women, then that’s his problem, not mine. I only want to let this story die like the rest of them so that Tiger and everyone else can go on to something more important.
Tiger might need psychiatric help, we know that. A cheating man is one thing, but messing with porn stars means that you are putting your spouse’s life in danger. While I’ve taken a public stand against Tiger’s wife Elin going upside his head with a golf club, there is a big part of me that understands her rage. I am sure though, that in spite of Elin Nordegren’s legitimate anger, most women get cheated on and never receive a promise of $80 million dollars to make the pain go away. So, in some ways, my sympathy for both she and Tiger is somewhat limited.
But while Tiger might need psychiatric help for his sexual issues, we all need a psychiatrist to help us understand our obsession with his private life. I would be the first in line to meet the therapist, for I’ve personally written eight articles about Tiger Woods in the last five days alone, along with roughly 15 media appearances to discuss the issue. Sure, it was part of my job, but I have to confess that even I was curious about the “real” Tiger Woods: The man who wasn’t the result of some carefully crafted, artificial, maliciously guarded image that was created by “Team Tiger” (isn’t that a stupid name anyway?). I’d never felt that the perfect man with the 10 foot smile could actually be a real human being. It turns out that he is more human than the rest of us, at least off the golf course.
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I saw a map on the Internet that showed the prevalence of Internet searches for the term “Tiger Woods” shortly after the scandal first broke with his wife. Of course, the United States was lit up like a Christmas tree, since we were all pretty much obsessed with the story. The same is true for Europe. But what I also noticed was that almost no other country in the world showed even a fraction of the interest in the story that we were showing in the United States. This proves that Americans don’t have many problems, and no interest in meaningful social or political events. We don’t have to worry about war, famine, or political turmoil. Instead, we can grab a bag of chips and plant our fat butts on the couch to watch Nancy Grace mull over the same ridiculous details each day, with the same pictures, the same guests and same subtitles on the screen. In many ways, we are pathetic and this is getting embarrassing. The way we’ve analyzed Tiger Woods’ life over the past few days is a sad reflection on the state of our society.
So Tiger, I apologize. I am going to get a life and leave you alone. I want you and your family to go to your private island, sip iced tea and “kick it” till your marital problems blow away in the wind. But while I am truly sorry for obsessing over your life for the past few days, the saddest part of it all is that I would probably do it all over again. When I figure out why that is, I’ll let you know.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.
