Tiger and the Grievance Industry

Claude Sandroff at the American Thinker tells us that the people most angry at Tiger Woods' these days are not his sponsors or fans, but those in the black grievance industry who are angry that all of Tiger's female conquests have been white:

Anyone who hoped that Obama's election would usher in a post-racial American era might have to wait another generation. To see why just take a look at Tiger Woods' troubles -- the ones he has with some members of the black media elite.

It is likely after Tiger's facial scars heal, his sponsors are mollified, his shame dissolves, his wife forgives or divorces him and his fans forget all the dalliances with his ever-growing harem, that many black journalists will continue to hold a bitter grudge.

For Juan Williams, Jesse Washington and Eugene Robinson, Tiger is not primarily the world's greatest, richest and most dominant athlete. He is not an individual allowed to live and die by his own code of conduct. For them, Tiger is not a self-determining soul, but a black man who must live by- and never violate- their constraining tribal rules.

They are furious at Tiger, not because he cheated on his wife, but because his wife is white and all of his affairs were with white women. If only Tiger had filled his carnal cornucopia with something other than blondes they might have forgiven his unrestrained adultery. Apparently, he might have remained in the good graces of some, or might have been completely ignored if he had been able to find just one black cocktail waitress or porn star to bed during some of his lonely moments on the road.

Juan Williams, a regular Fox contributor, seemed to be upset last weekend that Woods had not followed the more politically acceptable model of black marriage as defined by Barack Obama. Egged on by the ultimate racial provocateur Geraldo Rivera, Williams admitted that by marrying an American black woman, Obama automatically earned a special authenticity, since through his wife he could stake vicarious claims on her lineage, which dates back to the slave South. Before marriage, Obama had no link to American race struggles and could lean only on white prep school elitism and his Kenyan ancestry. So Obama married well, or at least in a politically correct way according to the prevailing and acceptable racial narratives. Tiger Woods did not; he chose the Barbie route. For Eugene Robinson who wrote of the "Barbie-of-the-Day revelations," some racial epithets are more acceptable than others.

If this is the level to which we have sunk when discussing the issue of race, I am almost happy to stand in Tiger's corner because he, not Obama, is the true symbol of racial progress in America. We will have conquered race in America, when race becomes irrelevant, even boring. And Tiger has always tried to make his race an invisible component of his career. That is a very admirable thing.

Despite all of his current problems, Tiger is the very embodiment of the post-racial America promised us by Mr. Hope and Change. He happened to be better than almost anybody in history at a game that's been almost exclusively white, and has ignored the color barrier in his relationships. He's also defied those who demanded he sign on to their color-coded language and grievances.

When Obama's inauguration festivities were underway in Washington he was invited to speak at the Lincoln Memorial ceremony, which he did. However, he did not speak about race or how Obama's election marked a new racial harmony in America, but spoke about his dad and the sacrifices made by military men and women just like him. He refused to go along with the racial hype and that angered a lot of those who make a living peddling that crap.

I don't admire Tiger for the conduct which has come to light in the past few days, but I do admire him for staying out of the racial grievance business.