Tigga What?

Tiger Woods just made the cover of Vanity Fair and I have to ask is this what a Cablinasian looks like? If so I’ve never been prouder to be a Black man. As a person who regularly works out to stay in shape, I don’t know if I’m more offended by that beat up body (what’s up with those nipples and that obviously sucked in gut) or the stereotypical image presented. He looks like some incarcerated thug from the prison yard. Shirtless and apparently in the midst of pumping iron (again with that body there’s not a whole lot of pumping going on) a menacing glare and a knit ski cap he could be on the cover of Black Criminals Monthly. Famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz took the photos prior to the recent Tiger Woods sex scandal but the intentions of Vanity Fair are clear. To exploit Tiger Woods and terrify and alienate white America. It reminds me of The O.J. cover of Time magazine immediately following his arrest. Uh, that would be his arrest for the double homicide and not the arrest for that stupid burglary thing which eventually landed him in jail…idiot. But unlike O.J., Tiger is not accused of a crime other than that of infidelity so what’s up with the mug shot?

After years of trying to convince the world that he was Cablinasian it seems that in the eyes of Vanity Fair, Tiger is just another Black man anyway, at least the Vanity Fair vision of a Black man. Is this the only photo they could come up with for the cover or just the most exploitive? And even though Annie Leibovitz recently shot the beautiful Christmas photos of the first family she doesn’t get a pass either. Is this how she views Black men, as common criminals? With his menacing glare, these purposely-darkened mug shot photos paint a clear picture of the violent sex addicted black bogeyman that conservative white America has warned their daughters to stay away from for years. And Tiger doesn’t help his case any with quotes from him in the article referencing the penis size of Black men and bragging about his sexual prowess.

The truth is that Tiger willingly posed for these photos long before the scandal broke. So I have to ask what were his intentions? What did he hope to gain from the exposure of these photos? Was he attempting to bust the good boy squeaky clean all American image his father had so carefully carved out for him? That certainly would explain the sex scandal. Maybe Tiger finally realized that he is in fact a Black man and if so perhaps this is Tiger’s image of what he thinks the Black man is, a thugged out pumped up womanizing criminal. What’s next a rap album from Tiger using the alias Tigga along with a video showing him grabbing his crotch and calling women beyotch? Uh-huh uh-huh. I’m not sure if I should be defending him or admonishing him. Whatever. One thing I know for sure, that body is just offensive.