What are you thinking about on the eve of the new year?
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I am thinking I need to go to sleep. Maybe I have a LIE problem…
Other than that, I’ve been thinking about tiger woods alot. Specifically, that the media seems to be ignoring the fact that he was the victim. Having multiple affairs is not very nice, BUT it is NEVER OKAY to beat some one with a golf club.
I am sure race (and probably gender) is a factor in how this story is being manufactured.
I wish there was an Open Thread on Racialicious then I can post about this article on Tiger Woods’s Anne Lebovitz photos.
This site is more for antiracist parents raising children to be antiracist, and the link I have wouldn’t fit here.
@Katie – I don’t know a lot about the story beyond that he cheated quite a bit and what the police found when they showed up at his house. I agree, the beating your partner almost to unconsciousness is troubling – she really could have killed him! But I think there is the idea that he deserved it. Or … that what she did was understandable/justifiable. Because she was white and he is not? Or because she is female and he is male? Because he was unfaithful? All of the above? Hard to say.
hsofia- yeah, that is exactly what bothers me about it- “the idea that he deserved it.” If she had been cheating on him, how would the story have been portrayed? There is no excuse for abuse. Males are not usually the victims of domestic violence, but the way this story has been covered really bothers and confuses me.
Also, I LOVE that Carol’s Daughter is making the official princess and the frog shampoo.
I think the Tiger Woods situation speaks to the conversations we may have to have with our pre-teens and teenagers about dating, especially dating interracially. We can easily say “of course theres nothing wrong with dating interracially” (which I agree with, having married interracially) but maybe there is a need to talk about the subtleties of racism that come up in dating. For instance, what do you say to your son who is in love with a girl who is a different race and he’s facing her parents not approving of the dating because of his race? Stuff like that are what we can have an ongoing conversation with our children about as they grow…learning how to maneuver that as a teenager is something that is learned from the guidance and observation of our parents, I think.
Is anyone familiar with the book, “Rifles for Watie”? It’s a supposed to be THE young adult fiction book about the Civil War-a Newberry winner, even–that was written in the 1950′s and researched in the 1940′s. Every review I have found speaks of it in glowing terms, about how it shows that there was good and evil on both sides, but I am concerned about the portrayal of POC in this very old book.
My daughter came home from school with it assigned for class and her first assignment on it is due tomorrow-I can’t read it by then of course. I read the final chapter in which the Confederate girl the main character met as a Union spy speaks proudly of learning to milk a cow “almost as well” as one of her former slaves…not feeling this is going to be fun for DD.
Since the book is so old, and the reviews are mostly by white adults who loved it as kids-anyone here read it? Or can you point me to a site with a POC-based review?
Thanks.
@Katie – I agree it’s not okay to beat someone with a golf club. If she had been he and he had been she, the story wouldn’t be a source of jokes and Elin would probably be facing charges. If the races involved had been reversed, there would still be jokes, but the jokes would be entirely different, and mostly aimed at her. But the general “tone” seems to be that if you cheat on a pretty white woman, you deserve whatever you get, especially if you are a male of color who really didn’t deserve *her* in the first place. Pretty messed up.
Adrienne,
My ex-husband, who is black, grew up in a community in which his was the only black family, the same community in which his mother had grown up. She grew up knowing that her younger brother hid crouched down in the back seat of white friends’ car while the friend went to the front door to pick up her brother’s white dates.
Fast forward and my ex’s mom taught her sons this: If you can’t be welcomed into their home, don’t date them.
The heart loves who it loves, but I can’t say I wouldn’t give my kids similar advice. There’s just something dehumanizing about having to sneak around. Of course, this edict may not go over well with a teen who’s in love, but my ex said that he embraced it.
Oh also, I just wanted to give a virtual standing ovation to Tami, and anyone else who was involved in getting the conversations and “tone” of comments back on track. I feel like there has been a HUGE difference in just a few weeks, and I know I’m not alone in appreciating it.
> But the general “tone” seems to be that if you cheat on a pretty white woman, you deserve whatever you get, especially if you are a male of color who really didn’t deserve *her* in the first place.
I had a whole rant in my kitchen 2 days ago about how Woods was basically given social “white privilege” to borrow by virtue of his talent, his money, his popularity, and his marriage. But the SECOND you fail, you fall from grace, you become yet another oversexed black (or non-white, the “other” in any case) man. It was only borrowed, after all, and lasts as long as you play the game.
Even though, yes, he was a victim of domestic violence but the gender AND racial biases are preventing the media and apparently even Woods himself from admitting that. If a woman was beaten with a club in her own home, would the media be so supportive of her going back into the home to “make the marriage work?” Yeah. Not so much. And if the races were reversed, there’d be people chorusing, Remember Nicole Simpson? Run baby run!
That’s another thing too, Woods not wanting to press charges is very common for victims of domestic violence.
BUT he doesn’t NEED to press charges for the police to take action. There seems to be substantial evidence that a crime was committed, and the criminal justice system does not require a complainant in order to prosecute crimes. That is how they are able to convict people of murders, despite the fact that their is no murder victim to testify.
I haven’t come across anything that alludes to Tiger’s race or Elin’s race in this whole saga. Can someone share some references to major articles on this subject that allude to race?
@hsofia: It doesn’t matter if any articles on tiger Woods’ recent issue mention race, his or his wife’s. His race, in particlar, is a part of popular culutre and there is no question that race has an impact on the discussion. Can I ask why you need the information?
@Lindsay – I rarely watch TV news, don’t have cable, and get most of my news online from magazine or newspaper article, so I haven’t read or heard much about the Woods affair. Renn’s and Lyonside’s comments are what prompted my request as I feel out of the loop.
@Katie – at first I wondered why the police didn’t continued to investigate a minor car accident, but when I learned that he was going in and out of consciousness, and had injuries to his body, it made sense. After all, what if the police had done nothing at all, taken his word for it that all was well, and then several days later, she attacked him again and killed him? Then everyone would be wondering why the police ignored the obvious signs …. I am not a big fan of the police, but this is an instance in which they did their job. I wonder if they would have pressed the issue if he had *not* been the famous Tiger Woods ….