return to worldwidereview.com,
the home of critical reviews
From: Category: Art Date: 10 December 2009 Time: 08:46 AM Review: The connection between the stereotypical sportsman, the black or ethnic outsider and the predominantly white corporate media machine is somewhat elusive here, as a stereotypical sportsman Tiger Woods fits the pattern of high achieving black sportsmen or women, Golf and Tennis are two of the highest earning sports (for the individual players) and at that extreme end of financially induced rewards, corporate interest will outbid any form of racism because their prime interest is money, sponsorship or product endorsement. A few years back or maybe some parts of current Cricket or Football I would recognize a racist element but the criticism here embodies the colonial attitude adopted by the Golf Club which is admittedly a notoriously difficult world for any non white female to negotiate, now that the black golf professional is a popular manifestation why continue to uphold this colonial attitude ?. Are any of these observations valid in the face of Tiger Woods allegiance to white mainstream lifestyle and attitude? The wider implication emerges in the Climate Change debate where America is borrowing money from China to lend to consumers so that they can pay for cheaply manufactured ( carbon dense), offshore goods whilst India and China object to Western constraints placed on their emerging manufacturing industries because India and China have told the West that they have benifited from unrestrained manufacturing for at least a hundred years or more. Lord James Dyson sacked his Devonian workers in the factory where he received grant aid from British taxpayers so that he could manufacture more cheaply in Asia. He received an award for this action because it was considered good business and therefore innovative - not the crappy little gadget that he warbles on about when invited on Question Time or other things created for lords to mouth off on, He was rewarded for being crafty and devisive. Consider Lord Dyson's actions within similar moral frameworks as Tiger Woods and you might concede that society encourages anti-social actions, by anti social I refer to acts that are driven by individual ambition over community concerns. Theres no such thing as Society chestnut. The argument about racist attitudes in sport is founded but the elusive nature of "social mores" is complicated by the increasingly corruptable nature of money, capital and corporation. In many ways we are in melt down both financially and ecologically, there is a propensity to look away from the morality by justifying actions as multicultural, traditional or contemporary. Does Tiger Woods cultural background matter? Do we care that the Banks have taken our money? Do we buy Isreali fruit? Do they manufacture Grotowskian Clown outfits in the EC?