The Tiger Woods-Sergio Garcia spat
reached its zenith after two weeks on Tuesday, and it was everything
that the media could have asked for. After consistently being
entertained by the back and forth between the two golfers and even
egging them on with questions about each other, we saw it end with
one of its two possibilities. Either it would fizzle out as the
golfers would move on from it or it would come crashing down with an
all too personal comment. Sergio Garcia chose the latter, and took a
useless situation that got made into an even more talked about
useless situation and turned it into something blown hugely out of
proportion.
After being asked playfully if he would
have Tiger over for dinner, Sergio responded that, “We will have
him 'round every night. We will serve fried chicken.” In simple
terms, it was a dumb, racist comment, and as usual, that’s what the
media has run with it as. But, it’s not simple. Race is never a
simple subject. If you actually look at it in complex terms, we
should realize that we are better than a discussion on this subject
as a society, that we have moved on from such terminology and such a
thought process, and that this ordeal can only be chalked up as
something not worthy of discussion in the scope of racism and
discrimination in 2013.
It’s a stupid situation to begin with
because this has happened to Tiger before. In 1997, after winning The
Masters, golfer Fuzzy Zoeller commented that, “"So you know
what you guys do when he gets in here? Pat him on the back, say
congratulations, enjoy it. And tell him not to serve fried chicken
next year .... or collared greens or whatever the hell they serve."
There are many reasons why Zoeller's comments were far worse than
that of Garcia's. This was Tiger Woods's first major win. He was
young and on the cusp of the greatness that golf fans were expecting
from him. He also was a man with black skin entering a white man's
world. Zoeller's comments brought that underlying reality back to
earth with a comment that sounded like something said in many country
clubs over the years with a level of ignorance and incompetence that
we wished we would not see at that time. Zoeller was rightfully
criticized by the media and the public for the comments and his golf
career has never lived down that moment, particularly when countered
with Tiger's success.
But, since then, things have changed.
Over the years, Tiger Woods has defied race (the media sometimes
glosses over that he represents more than one of them) and become the
most recognizable player in the sport and arguably the most
recognizable athlete in the world.
I remember when I was in seventh grade
and Zoeller's comment was major news. I was sitting in English class
and we were discussing the comment. My friend, Brad, a
Japanese-American, didn't know that eating fried chicken was a
stereotype of black people. In fact, I didn't even know that was a
stereotype, either. How could two kids of racial minorities not know
that? It's possible that because we grew up in a predominantly white
suburb of Cleveland that we weren't exposed to that. But, it's also
likely that the stereotype itself had been so far removed from our
cultural thought that we weren't even aware of it growing up in the
1990s.
What's been missed with this ridiculous
comment by Sergio is actually examining what is the issue at hand
here. If a comment about fried chicken is supposed to lead into a
discussion about race, why isn't the sports media actually having a
discussion on that? If we're supposed to be educating people from
these comments, why isn't anyone actually discussing minstrelsy,
coonery, and other terms that actually connect fried chicken as a
racial stereotype? Once again, it's because we'd rather handle a
complex subject like racial history in far more simplistic terms.
It's far easier to say “Fried chicken is a stereotype” and
respond with “That's offensive” than actually have an intelligent
discussion about it.
Fried chicken became a racial
stereotype thanks to minstrelsy, and the commercialization and
depiction of Black Americans as buffoons by white individuals in
power. It's an uncomfortable part of history with even more
uncomfortable imagery.
But, we've gone beyond that in 2013.
The first sign of blackface comes with a response of disgust or anger
by the general population. Minstrelsy and such stereotyping of fried
chicken, watermelon, collared greens, or any other food you'd like to
select gets the type of reaction that Sergio received. It's
rightfully so. The majority of people know that this type of
perspective is wrong, and those that do not are frankly idiots who
likely choose to not educate themselves further on the subject.
That's what makes Sergio's comment and
the uproar over it that much more ridiculous. Clearly, Sergio tried
to be funny. He failed at that. Clearly, he tried to make it
personal. He failed at that. Not only did he fail at all of those
things, he set them on fire. Of course, he has to then make an
apology, so that we can end all of this. He's not racist in that he
made one comment about race that was misguided and ignorant and he
was punished for it. I don't know Sergio Garcia personally. If he
utters racial slurs underneath his breath or looks down upon others
as less than him because of their race, then that's something that I
simply don't know about, but that would make him racist. What I do
know is that he's a golfer who has cracked under pressure, won zero
majors, spit in a cup at a tournament, and now used the lowest form
of unfunny humor to try to one-up another individual. His legacy
already speaks for itself.
The problem that is truly maddening is
the reason that I wrote this blog post to begin with. First, I am a
stand-up comedian, so I am going to look at things a little out of
the box, but it will come back to simple logic. Unless you're a
vegetarian or an insane person, you have to love fried chicken. It's
delicious. The notion that this is something only enjoyed by Black
people and to some excessive extent is obnoxious in 2013. It's also
to the point that few people upon hearing “Black people love fried
chicken” actually think of minstrelsy in their minds, but rather
just think, “That's wrong to say.” The reality is that we all
love fried chicken. We all love watermelon. We all love collared
greens. “Soul food” is truly appreciated now. It's not a part of
buffoonery.
I'm not Black (obviously). I can't
speak for Black people and what offends them specifically. But, I can
say, as a human being who is a racial minority, if you are offended
simply by the words, “fried chicken,” that is odd. I'm not sure
how many Black people really are offended by that. If a stranger says
Sergio's comment to you on the street, you should be irate, but
that's the end of it. You're not going to see that person again and
there's no reason to interact with someone like that further. Those
are the situations I can speak of as a Brown man. I've been called a
lot of racial slurs (some not even my own) over the years by complete
strangers. It angered me briefly, but then I pushed that person's
ignorance aside.
In this case, Sergio Garcia and Tiger
Woods know each other. They are co-workers who don't like each other.
If one of my co-workers said something along the lines of “fried
chicken” to me and I didn't like them to begin with, I'd report
them to Human Resources. There's no need for education and discussion
with someone I already don't respect. That's all Tiger Woods did. He
let Sergio lose the conversation in tweets clearly approved by a
public relations person, and then let the Human Resources that was
the world's opinion let Sergio be punished for it. Sergio has been
punished for a dumb and misguided comment.
But, inevitably, it comes back to race,
and here's where my biggest problem lies. I don't know the best way
to refer to it, so you as the reader can put it in your own terms.
You could say “The Man,” “The Company,” “The Powers That
Be,” “The Predominantly White Media,” whatever. However,
someone is dictating what racial minorities are supposed to be
offended by, and that's more offensive than anything in this
Tiger-Sergio debate. When you decide how an entire group of people is
supposed to feel about something, you've taken away who they truly
are. Rather than say, “That's offensive,” we should instead be
asking, “Who's offended by fried chicken?” No one answered that
question because no one asked it. There's a certain level of “white
guilt” that's involved in why the question doesn't get asked as
well as just dealing with how uncomfortable the subject of race can
be. Nevertheless, no one truly posited the question or answered if
Black people care that Sergio Garcia said the words, “fried
chicken,” to Tiger Woods. My educated guess is most of them don't.
I don't care because I can look outside of the box and say that
minstrelsy is wrong, it's a terrible part of our history that is not
acceptable, and fried chicken is delicious and anyone who has eaten
it would likely agree with that. In the scope of racial discussion
and discrimination, frankly, we've been here, and in 2013, we have
bigger fish (or chicken) to fry.
I waited for the dust to settle on this
situation to see the reactions from famous sports columnists about
it. Every one of them took the usual approach, which was to criticize
Garcia or the feud in general. I turned to famous Black sports
columnists to see their response. Michael Wilbon has always been
critical of Sergio Garcia, so his response of being “offended” on
Pardon the Interruption wasn't a surprise. Jason Whitlock (who was caught in his own stereotypical mistake last year) had some good
points, but went on to say that Tiger needs to “promote enlightenment” on race. That's never been Tiger Woods, and there's
no need to expect that from him. If we wanted a better opportunity to
discuss race, then last year's Heat Trayvon Martin photo was that
time.
But, no one pointed out that we're
simply beyond this particular situation. It is understandable to have
an uproar over inappropriate comments that are hurtful, but it's
ridiculous to have an uproar over the type of commentary that we've
already heard, discussed in the past, proved to be wrong, and moved
on from. It's also ridiculous to merely label something as wrong or
offensive without analyzing and educating others to be better than
that. If we want to truly analyze sports and race together (or really
any subject in life), then that's an essential part of it, and that's
what was missing from every media member's overblown reaction to this
situation.
If we're going to discuss race, there
are so many other forms of discrimination and civil rights issues
that exist not just in America but around the world that are worthy
of debating. Certainly, in sports, when the situation arises, it's
worthy of talking about. But, now, we're at a time period where
discussing gay rights or more serious situations with racial
implications (the aforementioned Trayvon Martin case as an example)
are what we're ready to deal with, analyze, and educate people about
in 2013. To focus in on a “fried chicken” comment only harps back
to a time and perspective that most of us from my generation and the
generation after me are disconnected from and completely frown upon.
We should have a knowledge of our history so as not to recreate it,
but we shouldn't consistently hammer home its worst parts (like
“fried chicken”) as some sort of casual reminder that everyone
should be offended.
Race isn't a simple topic, and one
column can't cover the scope of hundreds of years of violence and
discrimination that puts us in these types of situations. But, if we
want to experience true equality, we also have to really examine how
far we have progressed and what's logical and worthy of discussing
and educating each other about. A “fried chicken” comment by a
misguided golfer is worth a few seconds of discussion in our day and
age. It's not worth a constant day-long chatter where no one (not
even the individuals actually involved) progressed any farther than
when the words “fried chicken” left Sergio Garcia's lips.
