On that theme I read the Secret Life of Tiger Woods biography and was reminded of how racism was also used for ultimately making money. Despite Tiger excelling at the junior and amateur levels and his fame within the niche sport extending to the mainstream he, with an increased national profile, began using his mixed race to his advantage. He (and his father) used two stump stories. "I became aware of my racial identity on my first day of school, on my first day of kindergarten. A group of sixth graders tied me to a tree, spray-painted the word 'n****r' on me, and threw rocks at me. That was my first day of school. And the teacher really didn't do much of anything." He then said he, just five years old, walked a couple of blocks home alone. Given how his mother was so protective of him if this actually happened she would have absolutely annihilated the staff there. The teachers at the school also poured scorn on that story suggesting kids would have been supervised at all times and no child on their first day would go home alone. The other aggrandizing story was how when as a junior and amateur he would travel across the US and, playing elitist type country clubs with mainly rich white memberships, he said he was barred from using the clubhouse and facilities because of the colour of his skin. He used this racism as a motivation with only two questions at such unwelcoming places. What is the course record and where is the first tee? Funnily enough there are plenty of testimonies from those on those circuits at the time that Woods and his father were welcomed and his story was a fantasy as far as they were concerned.
In the end Woods becomes a phenomenal talent and he signs commercial deals along with a provocatively race baiting Nike advert launching their deal. His father was so enthused that he deudedly said his son would change the world like Gandhi had. Before he even hits a ball as a professional Tiger is a multi-millionaire at 20 and set for life. Now that doesnāt mean that there is no racism in the US and that he wouldnāt have faced prejudices during his rise but even if he crashed and burned as a pro, lost form and ended up injured or in the lower Tours he became a rich man propped up with an attention grabbing narrative of being a man of mixed race in a white mans sport. Unlike Meghan, Woods had talent and despite the sob story for PR delivered on his talent. Meghan doesnāt have such talent. She also had her stump stories. Like the P&G story, like her shattered innocence thinking falling ashes was snow during the LA riots, like the climbing through the back of her car going through the audition grind before she became a Star it all became a part of her mythology. She thought sheād gotten the ultimate sob story after marrying into a terribly white family and, of course, shock of horrors, she faced racism. Her mission took on a messiah complex. She had no interest in doing any actual work or meaningful service. She must have thought she had it made and she even managed to convince her husband that he had unconscious bias and that they mutually needed to save his British family from themselves. The suspicious part obviously that they would do that from thousands of miles away in America while conveniently raking in the inevitable millions that her victim playing story would bank her. Only one problem. She isnāt Tiger Woods. She has no actual talent.