Tiger Woods on the cover of Vanity Fair: Crouching Tiger Hidden Brotha?
The person in the picture below is not the member is a gangsta rap group (although it's very early 90's NWA Straight Outta Compton), not a member of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) or 2010's first from the gutter to Oprah to the best seller list (you can overcome your ghetto bullet dodging past) to the movies starring Sandra Bullock "IT" story, the man in the picture is TIGER WOODS!
This photo fascinates me for a couple reasons: 1) I, like you I'm sure, was shocked Tiger could pull this look off and 2) that he posed for it, but I understand why. No matter your race or cultural background every male at some points like to have his the peak of his bravado documented. This is the most sexual Tiger Woods has ever looked AND (yes I'm going there) the "Blackest" he's ever looked. By Blackest I don't mean because he looks like a thug. White, Asian, Latino and men of other races bare their chest and wear knit skull caps all the time and that doesn't make them thuggish. When I say Blackest I mean he is not in the garb that we normally see him in that frames him as a multi-ethnic non threatening golf playing Ken Doll, he looks like any other Black male you'd see at the mall, Target, the bank, grocery store or 145th Street in Harlem. As a black male I have no problem being identified as Black (not African American, I'm from Virginia) or a Black male, thats what I've seen for 37 years when I look in the mirror. I only have a problem when I'm associated with negative, ignorant, played out stereotypes. Now I in now way mean to negate his Asian mother or his fathers multi-ethnic background but I know for a fact that if I were walking down the street with him and two of my white friends our group would be described as two white guys and two black guys.
I like this picture, it balances the scale, it shows another side of a what we now know is multifaceted (being polite) person. I've always thought he was a nice looking man but he came across as the guy that would run (or cry) if he had to fight or protect his woman, now he looks like he'd start a fight or take someones woman, and by take I mean woo her, not drag her off by the hair.
I've read what others have said about this picture and the adjectives don't shock me, ignorance is alive and well. Annie Leibovitz, the photographer, knew EXACTLY what she was doing when she took this picture, she knew this would be "THE" Tiger Woods photo (take long before the accident and scandal). Annie is responsible for tongue wagging shots such as Demi Moore naked and pregnant (and later naked and painted), Whoppi Goldberg in a bathtub of milk, John Lennon and Yoko Ono (eerily on the day he died) and many more familiar headline making photos.
So forward this to your co-workers, friends, family and anyone else with a email and internet connection; TAWLK AMONGST YOURSELVES
My closing thought, I wonder what he thought when he saw this picture?
Photograph: Annie Lebovitz All Rights Reserved 2010
This photo fascinates me for a couple reasons: 1) I, like you I'm sure, was shocked Tiger could pull this look off and 2) that he posed for it, but I understand why. No matter your race or cultural background every male at some points like to have his the peak of his bravado documented. This is the most sexual Tiger Woods has ever looked AND (yes I'm going there) the "Blackest" he's ever looked. By Blackest I don't mean because he looks like a thug. White, Asian, Latino and men of other races bare their chest and wear knit skull caps all the time and that doesn't make them thuggish. When I say Blackest I mean he is not in the garb that we normally see him in that frames him as a multi-ethnic non threatening golf playing Ken Doll, he looks like any other Black male you'd see at the mall, Target, the bank, grocery store or 145th Street in Harlem. As a black male I have no problem being identified as Black (not African American, I'm from Virginia) or a Black male, thats what I've seen for 37 years when I look in the mirror. I only have a problem when I'm associated with negative, ignorant, played out stereotypes. Now I in now way mean to negate his Asian mother or his fathers multi-ethnic background but I know for a fact that if I were walking down the street with him and two of my white friends our group would be described as two white guys and two black guys.
I like this picture, it balances the scale, it shows another side of a what we now know is multifaceted (being polite) person. I've always thought he was a nice looking man but he came across as the guy that would run (or cry) if he had to fight or protect his woman, now he looks like he'd start a fight or take someones woman, and by take I mean woo her, not drag her off by the hair.
I've read what others have said about this picture and the adjectives don't shock me, ignorance is alive and well. Annie Leibovitz, the photographer, knew EXACTLY what she was doing when she took this picture, she knew this would be "THE" Tiger Woods photo (take long before the accident and scandal). Annie is responsible for tongue wagging shots such as Demi Moore naked and pregnant (and later naked and painted), Whoppi Goldberg in a bathtub of milk, John Lennon and Yoko Ono (eerily on the day he died) and many more familiar headline making photos.
So forward this to your co-workers, friends, family and anyone else with a email and internet connection; TAWLK AMONGST YOURSELVES
My closing thought, I wonder what he thought when he saw this picture?
Photograph: Annie Lebovitz All Rights Reserved 2010
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