I’m a sports fan. Love basketball and enjoy football. Baseball not so much, but I do watch some of the playoffs and world series. I don’t give a shit about golf, and hence, don’t give a rat’s ass about golf’s reigning god Tiger Woods. Being of mixed heritage myself (a black dad and a white mom) I know I should have feelings of kinship with Woods, but I don’t. I think it’s because Woods only seems to be about one thing… golf. I don’t like golf. I don’t get it. I know people who know golf say Woods is the most amazing “athlete” around.
Not sure why I decided to spend the time doing this satire on a stupid subject that has already grown tired, but I felt compelled for some reason. What bugs me about Woods is the mega corporate kingdom that surrounds him. Dave Zirin from “Edge of Sports” sums it up for me in this article.
- In 2008, Chevron entered a five-year relationship with Tiger Woods’ foundation under the guise of philanthropy. But if Woods had a shred of social conscience, this partnership would never have existed. Lawsuits have been issued against Chevron for dumping toxic waste all over the planet. Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Angola and California have all accused Chevron of dumping. Even worse, Chevron has a partnership with Burma’s ruling military junta on the country’s Yadana gas pipeline project, the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at nearly $5 billion since the year 2000.
- Then there is Dubai, the site of the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course. Located at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, Dubai has been a symbol of both economic excess, and most recently, economic collapse. It has been called an “adult Disneyland”–complete with indoor ski resorts and unspeakable human rights violations. As Johann Hari wrote in The Independent, it is a city that has been built over the last thirty years by slave labor. Paid foreign laborers work in more than 100-degree heat for less than three dollars a day. Dubai also has a reputation as ground zero of the global sex trade. The Tiger Woods Golf Course cost $100 million and Woods said nary a word about his benefactor’s business practices. This is business as usual for Tiger who would sooner swallow a five-iron than take anything resembling a political stand.
It’s weird. Tiger, as a man of color, has probably done a lot for race relations in America by simply playing golf. I understand there are some private clubs that are still “White’s Only”. (how they manage that I’m not sure) but I’ve never gotten the impression that breaking through racial barriers was high on Tiger Woods’ list. Unlike Jackie Robinson and Ali, Tiger has had the privilege of not having to fight that fight. And so he can just play golf… and build 100 million dollar golf resorts in Dubia where he doesn’t have to pay any taxes.
