Will The Tiger Roar Again

[National: Commentary]

An overheard conversation with slight embellishment

Recently, I observed four people sitting at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Broadway in the West 80s.

Two white men – older and well dressed, a young White female possibly college student, and a Black man in his early thirties. The talk turns to the Tiger Woods scandal:

White man with a balding head and glasses: “Thank God, it’s not like the O.J. thing. I don’t think the country could go through another one of those things.”
White man with a gray beard, checking his Blackberry: “It tore America apart. It was so racial charged. With this, Tiger did this to himself. He couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

Young White female giggling: “Hey, a lot of women would go for Tiger.”

Black man frowning: “A rich Black man, an accomplished Black man with a harem of White women. America is going to make him pay for this. America has a long memory when it comes to Black men. Look at how they are still treating OJ.”

White man smirks, adjusting his glasses: “Don’t interject race into this. He’s a sex addict. He’s just like Eliot Spitzer, JFK, George Clooney, or that damn Southern governor.”

White man strokes his beard: “Everybody likes a blonde. Every race loves a blonde. Explain the popularity of Marilyn Monroe. Woman’s has been dead for over forty years and she’s still big with most of the men in the world.”

Young woman looks at the Black man: “So he likes White women. Nothing wrong with that. He can choose whoever he wants, especially with his kind of money.”
White man still twisting his chin hair: “Many prominent Black men get to a certain status in their professional life and desire White women. O.J. did. Sammy Davis did. Michael Jordan did. And what was that skuzzy basketball player who dated Madonna?”

Young woman shrugs: “Yeah, I forget his name. He looked like he needed a bath.”

Black man points at the glasses-wearing man: “Race is an important part of everything in America. Everything. I think Tiger thought he had a free pass from white America. He thought if he achieved his dream that those achievements would rump his skin color. No way. He thought he wasn’t a nigger. Or in my neck of the woods, a porch monkey.”

Young woman sucks her teeth: “So are you condoning his affairs? They say he was having unprotected sex with whores, porn stars, and other sex workers. They say he had kinky habits. Every day, another woman comes out, saying she had sex with Tiger. If I was his wife, I’d get tested."

White man drinking coffee, getting it in his beard: “Tiger is an athlete who just happens to be Black. I think that is why America is so shocked with all of these revelations.”

Young woman laughs: “I remember Tiger going on Oprah back in 1997, saying he wasn’t Black and that he was Cablinasian. I know that pissed off a lot of Blacks because they wanted to claim Tiger. Just like they want to claim President Obama. He’s half-white.”

White man with glasses covers his mouth: “Tiger is his own worse enemy. Boy, I bet he regrets he smashed up his Cadillac Escalade on that Thanksgiving weekend.”
Black man sips his coffee: “Getting back to the race issue, I recall Fuzzy Zoeller saying of Tiger when he won his first Master’s, ‘You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year.’ That’s racist, don’t you think?”

White man with the beard, frowns again: “No, I don’t.”

Black man glaring at White folk: And Fuzzy also said, ‘Or collard green or whatever the hell they serve.’ Fuzzy thought Tiger is a Black. A nigger.”
Young woman shrugs again: “I hope Erin keeps her place in Sweden so when he starts acting up again, then she will have a home. She’s so pretty. I hear they have a $300 million pre-nup. She’s set for life.”

Black man rolls his eyes at the woman: “See, White folks get second chances. Robert Downey, Jr., Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Pam Anderson, even that Kim chick running around with Reggie Bush. The media are having a field day with Tiger. Wonder if they will give Tiger a second chance?”

Young woman laughs again: “Maybe he doesn’t deserve another chance?”

White man with the beard, drinking coffee again: “You take this too seriously. Everything is not race. Everything is not judged on skin color.”
Black man rises from his seat with a worried expression: “I’m out of here. You guys just don’t get it.”


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