Tiger Woods To Take Part In Obama Inauguration

Tiger Woods, who has tried to stay out of politics during his ascent to one of the world's most famous athletes, has accepted an invitation to speak at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday as part of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration festivities.

Woods posted a short statement on his Web site to say he would speak at "We Are One," a concert and celebration that will be broadcast live on HBO and feature entertainers such as Beyonce, U2, Stevie Wonder and Garth Brooks, along with appearances by Denzel Washington and Martin Luther King III.

"I am honored that I was invited to this historic event and look forward to participating in Sunday's festivities," Woods said.

Organizers of "We Are One" did not say what Woods would do at the Lincoln Memorial celebration.

Woods rarely gets involved in political discussions and festivities. He was criticized in 1997 after his watershed victory in the Masters when he turned down an invitation from former President Bill Clinton to travel to Shea Stadium in New York to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier.

A year ago in Dubai, when a reporter began to ask about Obama, Woods smiled and said, "Oh, God, here we go." He then said he was impressed with how Obama and all politicians were so quick on their feet, especially in debates.

"I think that he's really inspired a bunch of people in our country, and we'll see what happens down the road," Woods said at the time.

After Obama's landslide victory, Woods said on CNBC he was hopeful that a black man would be elected president in his lifetime.

"I think it's absolutely incredible," he told the cable network. "He represents America. He's multiracial. I was hoping it would happen in my lifetime. My father was hoping it would happen in his lifetime, but he didn't get to see it. I'm lucky enough to have seen a person of color in the White House."

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On the Net:

http://www.tigerwoods.com

Comments

[adamsmith3]

Sounds like a lot of people don't like Woods on here and I'm not sure why. But I'll take a guess. It's probably because he is 1)Probably a Republican, 2) He isn't vocal about his rac.ial identity (Imagine that, keeping something personal..­.personal) and 3) Didn't sing along in the "Yes I Can" video. I like the guy personally. He works obsessively hard at his passion, he keeps his politics to himself unlike most people at his stature, and he seems like a private person in general. I wish more celebritie­s/athletes had his personality.

[Jazzcomedian]

Tiger recently lost his contract with General Motors, and he hasn't played golf since winning the US Open, all the while expecting a second child with all the diapers, booties, and formula costs. On top of that, his $47 million home lost 25% off it's value last year, and he's probably underwater on his mortgage. He's exhausted his unemployment benefits, and knows that PE Obama is his only hope if he wants to make ends meet for Elin and the kids. That's why he's doing this.

[psbintl]

Are you insane!

What a bunch of B S!

[Jazzcomedian]

Ever heard of tongue in cheek?

[SethBLiNK]

The problem with Tiger and GM is that GM is broke. He is doing fine.

[Jazzcomedian]

Then why is his hairline receding?

[psbintl]

Why does anyone have to choose at all? Why can't people be who they want to be?

I am "AA" according to the "rules" and yet my mother who is also "AA" according to the rules is one-quarter American Indian and a small percentage of Asian. My father too is "AA" according to the "rules" and yet his great-grandfather was white and an Irishman.

My daughter's father (my -ex-husband) is white (blond haired and blue eyed) and her daughter (my granddaughter) father is also white (blond haired and blued). My daughter is barely 50% "AA" by virtue of my and my parent's heritage and my granddaughter is barely 25% "AA", and yet by the "rule" they must discount their white, American Indian and Asian heritage?

That is ridiculous!

In our family, no matter what our skin color is, and there are a beautiful rainbow of colors, what our features are or what our hair texture is we choose to honor our entire heritage, which is AA, white, American Indian and Asian!

If the AA and or white community can't handle that, it is their problem!

[deschl]

You can honor what you want and no one is denying that, but I bet you have to put black on your birth certificate and passport.

[Sam Deverell]

Why Cannot Tiger Woods be who he is . His father black and his mother asian !!!
Let's give his mother some credit for raising him and her genes are in hids dna .
Tiger biracial or what ever he wants to cal himself ....

[Ebuka]

Who really cares about Tiger Woods and DNA. He is simply not comfortable about his black heritage until Obama made being black a popular deal.

I care zilch about Tiger and his Asia DNA.

[spartanmom]

Not comfortable with being drawn into politics, more like.

[edjuk8]

And this comment is exactly why we cannot move forward with the topic of race.

[frankcaprafan]

I've always seen this topic as a vortex leading to futility.

[exPatPatti]

Tiger can call himself whatever he wants. He can make up any name he wants for what he identifies as.

He's darker-skinned than me and BOTH my parents are Black. Are we going by shade here? Genetics? Ethnicity? Culture? What?

Let's see... Either Tiger Woods is Black, or the construct of RACE doesn't exist.

You can't have it both ways, people.

[frankcaprafan]

Your logic: If you're black your black, if you're white you're white, if you're both you're black.

[spartanmom]

Read "Just One Drop"

[Tanyars5]

ra..cism and pre.judice are not logical...­..those who said that a drop of black blood means you are black were not rational, logical thinking people....­.....this ideology has been entrenched into the american culture .........t­he truth is the truth.....­...but as someone else says who cares about TW

[Wood]

The construct of race doesn't exist

[sent2null]

Wood, be careful about speaking common sense here...you might be tarred and feathered for your troubles. ; ) Any one who's read a book on population genetics , human phylogeny or paleo anthropology in the last 20 years knows that "race" is as dead as the Dinosaurs.­..unfortun­ately most Americans don't even know what those subjects cover let alone have read actual papers or books on the matter. Let us hope that changes with time.

[ohioan73]

"People try to dis my person by stating I'm darkly packed. I know this so I point at Q-Tip and he says: 'Black is Black'..."

De La Soul 1988

For you old skool hip-hop heads and b-boys and girls!

For those of you who aren't hip to De La Soul, shades of black have not mattered to black people for many years. Somebody should tell that to Tiger. His father obviously did not, may he rest in peace.

[Tanyars5]

I hear you .....so true....lu­v De la Soul

[sent2null]

that is such bullshit, I can't tell you how many times I've heard "blacks" discriminate one another over their shade. Who is light skinned , who is caramel skinned who his dark skinned. I've heard various traits attributed to people based on their skin color alone by blacks! So this fantasy that you want to paint that shade hasn't mattered to blacks is complete nonsense. The fact that it is so rampant is a testament to how well the slave holders did the job of divide and conquer by treating the lighter slaves differently from the darker ones, that animosity between dark and light is alive and well and you are lying by saying it doesn't exist....a­nd yes I am a person of color of Caribbean descent so I see this every day (in both AA and Caribbean social settings)

Stop trying to shoe horn Tiger into your polar world of "black" versus white...yo­u are just keeping the plantation holders plans alive and well by doing it, now isn't that ironic?

[total frizz]

Tell that to the people of Rwanda. The whole Hutu/Tsutsi mess was based on standards of discrimination based on skin color and other "favorable" or "unfavorable" racial characteristics.

[ohioan73]

It seems that America has very little understanding of colorism in the black community. It's a topic that Americans blunder often and end up offending black people because they simply are not interested in fully understanding the dynamic so they just blurt out things like "But he's not ALL black." What is black? It is a combination of historical African blood mixed with European, Asian, Indian etc. Black does not mean full blooded African. By that definition, Tiger Woods is definitely a black man. He can create whatever race he wants and call himself that but it doesn't change who he is. Black Americans were annoyed with him because he seemed to attempt to snatch away from the black community a sense of pride. He seemed to say: "Yeah, I'm the greatest but I'm not one of those ex-slave people." It was an insult and a slap in the face. You cant run from being black. They still made a "fried chicken" joke at his expense, did they not?

Even though I am about 10 shades lighter than Tiger Woods, I am vehemently black and I have nothing else to identify with. There is no escape route to another race for me no matter how straight my hair is. I don't want to be anything but black. Its glorious and full of win.

[edjuk8]

Read it again: He isn't denying his African roots, he is simply acknowledging the other ethnic groups that make him who he is.

[adamsmith3]

Do you not think that an Asian, American Indian, or white person would get offended if he denied any of this heritage. He didn't deny anything. I hear a lot about him "slapping black people in the face" but I don't hear any examples. Is it simply that he isn't vocal about his racial identity? Did you ever stop to think that he considers that a private matter and does not have the type of personality to divulge that kind of personal exploration to the public just so you can have some pride and latch onto his success. I can understand your point of view as to what makes a black person black (I can understand only to a certain extent since I am not black). But as we try to understand your point of view (which with no offense meant, doesn't seem like a point of view based on a rational argument but rather of an emotional response which is understandable) you must also try to understand other people's point of view that someone with 4 different ethnic backgrounds shouldn't feel guilty for not pretending that he only has one ethnicity. He doesn't want to deny his mother I'm sure.

[elcojonu]

NOW he wants to hang with his Brothers and Sisters.
You're late, but welcomed anyway.

[Tanyars5]

ha- so true

[frankcaprafan]

Great. Just what we need, more "us and them".

[deschl]

What I have a problem with is the fact that blacks are a minority, (even though they can't because of the "one drop" rule) choose the other half of their race, but if they could then wouldn't our numbers shrink as a black race until we cease to exist. I think that is one of the dangers here, and I think it is a healthy discussion that needs to be addressed in the black community. I think discussing it without being rude is healthy, and although you mean well, white folks need to stay out of this conversation. This goes back to slavery and the the jim crow south, and to when light skin blacks wanted to pass to be anything other than black, and who could blame them from the way we were treated, but I think at the same time the darker skin blacks who could not lie their way out of oppression have built up a resentment for people like Tiger who are given a pass.

[k6007]

Yes and because they 'took' the pass.

[NEWLYPOOR]

Human Beings....­ONE SPECIES!!! Move on HUmans!!

[SethBLiNK]

With all due respect, if you're having this conversation in a public forum, white people who choose to participate will, in spite of your suggestion that we "need to stay out of it."

Tiger Woods is 1/4 African American and 1/2 Asian, with mostly Asian blood (and no African blood) on his mother's side and even some on his father's side.

If he chooses to define himself as he is and not by the "one drop rule," he can do that. Obviously that option is only available because of the courage of many who came before him, but didn't the Martin Luther Kings, and Thurgood Marshalls and Jackie Robinsons of history do what they do precisely because they wanted some day for a man like Tiger Woods to be free to identify himself not as the Jim Crow south saw him, but as he, realistically, sees himself.

[Knowitall]

Tiger is fully aware of who he is, believe me. He's not much more "mixed" than most Black people in this country. Most know where the white, Asian, Hispanic or Native American "slipped in" (sometimes right in the middle of a bunch of children) and just choose not to share the information. I know exactly where mine is, and where the family lives.
But, you're right, if he wants to slice and dice his identity, that's up to him. (By the way, in AA America, he's half African American--his father identified himself as only black--a lot more than "one" drop. It was Tiger who chose to shake his father's family tree to see what fell out.)

.

[jemiltd]

In all due respect, there are some flaws in your view. The discussion of race is a multi-tiered , muliti faceted conversation and the exclusion of sound, sane, Anglo perspective would take away from that conversation. And I don't understand; what "pass" did Tiger Woods receive? Do you have any facts to back up that perception? You make a lot of assumptions without knowledge of what he actually went through. We managed to survive the holocaust of slavery, I doubt that we are going to shrink into extinction.

[init]

Was it Bagger Vance, Robert Redfords production? That was an interesting movie. Puts Will Smith in a different place.

[ZimboChick]

I guess its ood to be black now Tiger boy

[jgaines7]

No.

[reggieb]

you mispelled your name bimbochick. it is not ood

[init]

Tiger is one great young man. My father would have loved Tiger as Tiger's father loved him.. So therefore he's necessary now. (Big void to fill after the great ones.)

[donbrown]

The "one-drop" rule was imposed on blacks in this country by Southern planters in the 19th century who had a stake in keeping power away from anyone of color.

I find it a shame that so many African Americans have bought into the notion, and fail to realize its a form of control. I suspect they haven't traveled or read much about other cultures where that clear division makes no sense.

In my experience, people who are raised in multi-cultural societies have a much healthier outlook about their identities. In Obama's case, it was Hawaii.

Although I live in Honolulu now, I was born in Washington D.C., where the division is pervasive. I think Obama's ascendency is the beginning of a long overdue paradigm shift that will make the one-drop rule obsolete.

Good riddance.

[handsomeinnc]

I hope and pray there will soon come a day, when people will be PROUD of having ... 1/x-th of their blood lineage be black ...

A darker skin White ... will proudly call themselves Blacks ... And lighter skin Blacks will not attempt to be appear as White.

I hope there will come a day .. when we don't even remind people what bloodlines they have ... and instead only refer to them as ... Americans ...

[donbrown]

I do too! And think it will actually happen...a­s it is no longer a disadvantage to have melanin in the skin. Attitudes among whites are changing slowly but surely and when there is no longer discrimination on their part...the reaction of shame will disappear. But don't blame the victim.

This has already happened to a large degree in Hawaii... the Mainland has to catch up.

Younger people with less prejudice are the key.

[Knowitall]

Your second paragraph doesn't make any sense. Blacks haven't "bought into" anything. The one-drop rule was forced on them BY LAW. Have you ever heard of Jim Crow laws? Blacks always knew that those laws were nonsensical. They are not under any illusions about where they came from or what the purpose of them where. Even the most illiterate backwater farmer knows that. You don't have to travel anywhere or read anything to know how stupid color codes are.

As usual, the blame is being placed in the wrong place. Do you think Blacks WANTED to live under segregation. To have even their fair skinned children of the masters or bosses treated like animals in slavery and less than human under Jim Crow laws???? What in the world are you talking about??????????

[SethBLiNK]

Yes, the one drop rule was imposed by law. Those laws no longer exist and if Tiger Woods, whose blood is one Quarter AA and one half Asian, chooses to use a word of his own creation "Cablanasian" to describe who he is, why do so many people on this thread want to correct him and tell him what he would have been considered under happily-now-defunct law.

[donbrown]

By "buy into" I mean mixed race people that negate the other part of their heritage and ONLY identify as black, just as the Southern planters intended. There are several on this post who believe that and fault Tiger Woods for not wholly identifying as black, even though he is half Asian. That was my point. There is no reason he should have to commit to one or the other.

I speak only from my own experience. When I was in college (Harvard) there were many blacks, especially form the South who self-segregated at dinner...n­ot that there's anything wrong with that if it made them comfortable. The problem was that some actually resented the fact that I sat anywhere and talked to everyone, regardless of color.

I heard the same grumbling among some about Obama...at first...wh­en he seemed to appeal to whites. Some mistrusted him because of it. Of course, they won't admit that now.

[donbrown]

I have a very happy life and will leave Honolulu tomorrow for Washington to visit relatives and watch history being made.

From your tone, it does seem as if you have been frustrated in your life, and for that I am sorry...bu­t please do not take out your frustrations out on me and stop stalking me on these posts.

Thank you.

[NEWLYPOOR]

Human Beings...O­NE SPECIES!!! Move-on HUmans!

[Takae]

Then, why so many people here - most have publicly identified themselves as AA - condemn Woods for "refusing" to identify himself as a black man? Examples from this thread:

"I guess its good to be black now Tiger boy"

"Oh! Look who it is, its the cublasian golfer! he is anxious to be identified as a black man now? success sure has many friends.ps­st! Tiger woods= text book case of self hate and insecuriti­es.He shouldn't have been invited much less allowed to give any speech.He is not deserving of such honor."

"Yup - I have to agree. He has said on TV that he does not consider himself black and uses a word he had to invent to describe himself. I think he has a lot of nerve to accept the invitation and I think it was a bad idea to even invite him."

"Tiger woods hates everything black about himself, which is cool, but I'm glad Barack doesn't feel that way. Great golfer, unimpressive human."

And on it goes.

[Mitsy]

They are correct in identifying themselves as mixed race. America invented the one drop rule, hence its either 'black' or 'white'. No, its not a universal rule, its an american invention (for those who did not know that).

I am of African descent, but my family is mixed up with black and white races.

[diamondgirl9]

Obama identifies himself as a black man.

[donbrown]

On the other other hand, if you think because of that identificati, he is going to give other blacks a break because of their color, you are sorely mistaken.

I think this is going to be something some blacks are going to have to learn the hard way...and some will resent him for it, unfortunately.

We already got a hint of it with Jess Jackson's "talking down to blacks" rhetoric.

He's part of that "old school" thinking, and doesn't really get where Obama's coming from.

[naijaman]

Yes...and most whites do as well. The way racial identification is structured in America, Obama would have been laughed at if he identified himself as white. Personally I think it's healthy that we are able to discuss these sorts of issues in a level headed way.

[timetorevolt]

but he had no choice..do you think he could identified as white in this country just becasue his mother was white?