No watermelon juice?
No substitutions, please.
My Tiger Woods would be one third lemonade, one-third tea, and one-third pot liquor.
Someone should come up with a drink that is orange and black stripes.
Has he recanted? At any rate, he is more Thai than Black. His father, IIRC, has white and Cherokee ancestors, while his mother is strictly Thai.
Fanta Orange and Coke might work, but good luck getting the layers. Especially vertically.
Update. His mother is half Thai, half Chinese. And he referred to himself as Cablinasian (not Cablasian, as I stated earlier) as an adult, after his first Masters win. It seems that is much more than “how he defined himself as a kid.”
No, he hasn’t recanted. But I don’t think he goes around calling himself “Cablanasian” now.
And while his pedigree isn’t 50% negro, that doesn’t count for squat when it comes to race in America. As I’m sure both his father and experience has taught him.
Fuzzy. Is that you?
He said “Cablinasian” was a term he came up with as a kid.
He has said now he defines himself as “What you see is what you get”.
I’m not hating on Tiger, because I’m all about identifying yourself the way you want to. But the guy has taken advantage of “blackness” when it has suited him. The barriers he has talked about crossing (remember that whole Nike campaign a few years back?) were not placed there because of his white or Asian ancestry. The Fuzzy Zoeller kind of comments he has received did not target his whiteness or Asianness, but his blackness.
So while I believe he fully embraces all of his cultural and genetic make-up–as he should do–he would be naive and stupid if he believed that America sees him as a “Cablinisian” golfer. And I don’t think he’s naive or stupid. I think he has claimed, not explicitly but in action, a “black” political* identity–just as his “part-Asian” father did before him.
*political meaning “Since this is how you’re going to treat me, this is how I’m going to represent myself”.
He also defines himself now as Cablinasian.
What Fuzzy said has nothing to do with how Tiger sees himself.
Again, it is not about how he is seen, but what he is.
I don’t think his father was part Asian. I could be wrong. My understanding is that Earl Woods claimed Black, White, and Cherokee heritage. As for claiming a black political identity, consider this excerpt from one of my cites, above.
I don’t want to hijack the thread too much, but this line from one of the linked articles bugs the hell out of me:
Tiger Woods wouldn’t be where he is without the NAACP and the other “black” civic groups who gave him and his father support through both of their careers. Earl Wood was a direct beneficiary of African-American scholarships and athletic clubs, and through him so was Tiger Woods. So while Woods doesn’t owe anyone, it would be dickish to disassociate himself with organizations that helped paved the way for his success.
Not to mention, Tiger Woods received millions of dollars from Nike playing up his own history with racial discrimination: “There are still courses in the United States I am not allowed to play because of the color of my skin. I’ve heard I’m not ready for you. Are you ready for me?” He’s clearly not above getting involved with racial politics when they pump money into his pockets.
I disagree with that author’s remarks, as described above. And I mostly blame Tiger for this, because I think the guy in one breath tries to downplay the importance of his race and then in the next markets himself as a black athlete conquering the odds. He wants to play racial politics (I am a black man) when it is advantegous, but then pull himself back when it requires him to stick his neck out too much.
So yeah, he might still think of himself as “Cablinasian”. But you don’t see him going around correcting people who call him African-American or black either.
So… He clearly doesn’t deserve to have iced tea and lemonade named after him.
I don’t see faeries riding tiny bunnies and holding flashlights guiding my way home each night, either. Doesn’t mean they’re there.
It couldn’t hurt.
My Dad’s family used to refer to their outhouse as “the Roosevelt”.
I think the cause of true ethnicisity demands that we gang up on this upstart, and force him to choose a race, and act like he is one!
I mean, if you don’t draw the line somewhere, next thing you know, everyone will be claiming to be black!
Tris
Reminds me of a funny story of when I was a waiter, in High School, that involved a less then succesful mix of cultures and terminology that involved a Swiss friend of mine and some of his customers.
I won’t waste the bandwidth here. The ‘punch-line’ is “Omasoomflawhaaaaeye!”.