(ThyBlackMan.com) Earlier this week, ESPN aired, the one-hour documentary The Undefeated Presents Tiger Woods: America’s Son. It was a fascinating look at golf’s historically bad treatment of Black golfers, Tiger Woods’ impact and history with race, and explored “Woods’ historic win at The Masters in 1997 – becoming the first African-American golfer to win a major tournament – influenced perceptions of the golfer across racial and ethnic lines”. Without revealing too much of the documentary, as it is worth viewing, it gets the perspectives of many Black men of various ages who have been part of the game of golf for several decades and even today, as well as Woods’ self-agency as athlete of color in a predominantly white, upper-class sport.
The topic that has always been a controversial topic relating to Tiger Woods was his statement on the Oprah Winfrey Show following his groundbreaking 1997 Masters win, when he referred to himself as “Cablanasian”, when defining his multi-racial background. For many Black people, his comments were viewed as either naïve, demeaning, or both, as it seemed that he wanted to separate himself from being viewed as Black despite his father being Black. Interestingly, another Black athlete with a multi-racial background was putting together another win on his resume of dominance the day the documentary aired. Formula One racing superstar Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix to increase his Formula 1 record for career wins with 95. Unlike Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton has not shied away from identifying with Black politics as his fame and success as increased.
Formula One is the most popular professional racing circuit virtually everywhere except for America, where NASCAR is the most popular motorsports organization. Lewis Hamilton, who is from the United Kingdom, has dominated a sport that has more racial and ethnic diversity than golf but not much more. Months ago, he broke Michael Schumacher’s all-time Formula One wins record after winning his 92nd race. If being tops in career wins isn’t enough, Hamilton has already wrapped up the world title for this season and has tied Michael Schumacher as a seven-time world champion in Formula One. Hamilton is Formula One’s first and only Black world champion in its 70-year history and he has a definitive hold on the unofficial title of “greatest of all-time” in his sport that Tiger Woods doesn’t quite have in his sport due to the number of championships.
Lewis Hamilton is like Tiger Woods in that they are both close to their Black fathers who groomed them for greatness in a sport in which they would be very much the minority in terms of race. Golf is an expensive sport to play and Formula One racing is as well but Hamilton’s father worked three jobs, re-mortgaged the family home and dipped into his life savings to keep his son in karting. Lewis Hamilton has discussed racism he has received while participating in his sport as child and adult and has become more emboldened to speak out over the last decade. During the summer of 2020, he participated in a protest in London related to the Black Lives Matter movement and is setting up a commission in his name to increase diversity in motorsport.
While WNBA and NBA players have been visual and vocal regarding social justice, Hamilton has also been as one man in a sport surrounded by white competitors. He “has knelt ahead of every F1 race and has worn a shirt saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ ahead of every grand prix — before and after September’s event at Mugello, he wore a shirt saying ‘Arrest the Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor’.” His words have matched his actions as he has said, “Let’s make it so that opportunity is not something that is dependent on background or skin colour.” This is opposed to Tiger Woods, who maintains a relationship with Donald Trump and has not been an advocate for Blackness in the past. Woods could take some lessons from Lewis Hamilton.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines