Acting White

Acting White: TWA (Tiger With Attitude)

The February edition of Vanity Fair features Woods on the cover (pictured) looking, perhaps, more like an angry Black man straight out of Compton, rather than a We-Are-The-World Caliblasian. Anyway, given the troubling marital and professional spot he has placed himself, the timing of the cover is bound to create controversy – and this is exactly what VF is counting on.

They know that some vocal, hyper-sensitive, misguided souls will claim racist intentions, just like with that murdering OJ Simpson on the cover of Time (here). But, does the media really owe Tiger any accommodation? I think not – there’s been too much of this already. Besides, people who will jump to the all-Black-men-are-bad conclusion will do so regardless of whether Tiger or OJ claim, or are depicted as, Black and/or angry. Fear of the PC police should not dictate that any celebrity gets a fish-bowl pass.