bio<\/a>) \n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nThere’s an interesting wrinkle in the Tiger Woods scandal. There are some blacks who are angry that none of Tiger’s mistresses were black.<\/span><\/p>\nFor example, a recent New York Daily News<\/em> headline declared “Tiger Alienates Black Community with White Lovers.”<\/span><\/p>\nIt’s probably the least of his troubles, but it exposes a big problem in the black community.<\/span><\/p>\nWhether he knows or cares, Tiger has been alienating the black community for some time because he was sought as a Great Black Example to foster racial approval and acceptance.\u00a0 The only problem was that Tiger rejected them.<\/span><\/p>\nFrankly, it’s about darn time for somebody to have the courage to live outside the box and boundaries of race.<\/span><\/p>\nWho can blame Tiger?\u00a0 After all, being the Great Black Example is no small task.\u00a0 That person must abide by certain codes of conduct and pass extensive loyalty tests that may override reason, individual choice and common sense.<\/span><\/p>\nThere are three main rules, all of which Tiger Woods broke and thus “alienated” the black community.<\/span><\/p>\nFirst, where there is any racial ambiguity regarding the Great Black Example, the one-drop rule affirms their blackness.\u00a0 One must emphatically and unequivocally announce their blackness.\u00a0 Tiger Woods instead calls himself Cablinasian – a mixture of Caucasian, black, American Indian and Asian.<\/span><\/p>\nBut, because of his celebrity, this was overlooked.\u00a0 Whether Tiger accepted it or not, his Great Black Example status defined him as black.<\/span><\/p>\nNext, it’s best when the Great Black Example marries within the black enterprise.\u00a0 This is crucial when they are of mixed race because it solidifies their blackness.\u00a0 President Obama did this with flying colors in marrying Michelle, who is intelligent, attractive and unambiguous in her dark-skinned blackness.<\/span><\/p>\nEbonie Johnson Cooper, for example, told AP that, “Had Barack had a white wife, I would have thought twice about voting for him.”\u00a0 Woods caters to no constituency on the course, and his swing secures his trophies and endorsements – not his wife’s skin color.\u00a0 And Tiger’s wife is everything the alienated black community disapproves of: white, blindingly blond and married to the Great Black Example.<\/span><\/p>\nSimilar abandonment issues affected other Great Black Examples such as Quincy Jones, Van Jones and O.J. Simpson.\u00a0 In Tiger’s case, however, his cheating revealed a certain amount of profiling and preference that supposedly disgraced black women.\u00a0 But is there anyone who really denies the beauty of Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Tyra Banks, Lauryn Hill or our First Lady simply because Tiger Woods wasn’t unfaithful with a black woman?<\/span><\/p>\nFinally, the Great Black Example must have a hair-trigger willingness to decry any and all perceived racism. Tiger failed greatly here.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen CBS broadcaster Kelly Tilghman said golfers challenging Tiger should “lynch him” to win, Tiger took the high road.\u00a0 Through his agent, Tiger said, “We know unequivocally that there was no ill intent in her comments.”\u00a0 He further called Tilghman a respected friend.\u00a0 Such grace and dignity, eschewing conflict and finding strength in forgiveness, is not permitted.\u00a0 Conformity to victimhood is required.<\/span><\/p>\nTruth be told, all this proves the Great Black Example is extinct.<\/span><\/p>\nAn individual obligation to a group based solely on race or gender is inhumane. A person belongs to God and themselves.\u00a0 No group has a right to lay claim to someone else’s existence.<\/span><\/p>\nIt is time for the black community to accept and rejoice in this, for this is true freedom.\u00a0 There is no alienated black community, and woe to the person who works to manufacture one.\u00a0 There is only the fruitful character of the individual, and therein our responsibility lies.<\/span><\/p>\nThere was a time for power through a collective force of identity, but that time is gone.\u00a0 The time now calls for living and thinking through the lens of character.\u00a0 Our only obligation to each other is to be ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\nAt the risk of alienating blacks, Tiger Woods remained his own man.\u00a0 More power to him and his “to thine own self be true” outlook.<\/span><\/p>\nRejoice in God-given individuality!\u00a0 We owe to ourselves and others so that we don’t rise and fall according to mere examples of our race – but united within the human race.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods and the Problem of the “Great Black Example” by Lisa Fritsch (bio) There’s an interesting wrinkle in the Tiger Woods scandal. There are some blacks who are angry that none of Tiger’s mistresses were black. For example, a recent New York Daily News…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,60],"tags":[84],"yoast_head":"\n
Tiger Woods and the Problem of the "Great Black Example," by Lisa Fritsch - The National Center<\/title>\n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n