Another Reason Why I am a Terrible Person

By the time you read this post, I am sure many of you will already be aware of the historic anti-gravity flight that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking experienced on Thursday, April 26th. As a precursor to what the scientist hopes will be an eventual journey into space, Hawking and a team of NASA medical professionals boarded the flight provided by Zero Gravity Co. early in the day. The high-tech jet then performed a series of parabola flight patterns which is necessary to create the "weightless" atmosphere within the vehicle's cabin. Diagnosed with ALS, or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Hawking became the first American with a disability to experience a "zero gravity" atmosphere. The Associated Press was able to provide a photo of the scientist's weightless experience:

Why am I a terrible person and probably going to hell?

When I saw this photo, all I could think of was Hawking doing the Running Man.

Guess What? Tiger Woods is Black!

Every day when I come home from work I follow the same routine: hang up my coat, change into some comfortable clothes, maybe feed the cat, and check out the news headlines on the internet. Yahoo! is one of my favorite websites to read about the less-important news of the day, and it certainly did not disappoint this time around.

The Master's begins this weekend, as it does every year around this time, and continues to be the biggest golf tournament of the year (in both popularity and overall revenue). This year's tournament marks the tenth anniversary of Tiger Woods' amazing 11-stroke victory at the Augusta, GA course, and the first time that an African-American-Leopard ever won the event. Many "experts" believed that this victory would immediately catapult the sport of golf into the African-American mainstream, prompting thousands of young black boys and girls to pick up a putter with the aim of being the next Mr. Woods.

However, as time has shown, this simply did not occur. Yahoo! reports that this is because of the overall cost of the actual sport, claiming (or I should say the schmuk they intereviewed claims) that golf is simply too expensive for the African-American community to afford. Of course I am paraphrasing here, however the premise remains the same.

Another reason golf has not caught on more with the black community that is presented in the article is that golf, and golf equipment, is not as convenient to get your hands on and "simply play in (young black childrens') backyard".

*sigh*

This is obviously complete bullshit, and here's why:

While golf is an expensive sport (with many courses exceeding $80 to play at), there are plenty of smaller, less-expensive public courses available for anyone to play at for under $15. To be fair, this very point is brought up in the Yahoo! article, however I will take this a little further (because that is my job). Very simply put... if a kid from Compton can afford to buy the newest Air Jordans (retailing at something like $175), then he or she can afford to buy a used set of golf clubs and about 6 golf balls if they really want to.

Also, with this set of used clubs and a couple of wiffle-golf balls (retailing for something like $3 at Walmart) little Tiger-Wannabe can go out in any park, field, or yard and hit the ball around for awhile until the get better at it. "Lack of opprotunity" is complete garbage. Kids have some pretty strong imaginations and creativity, and if they really wanted to learn how to golf, they could do it with a pitching wedge and a ball of electrical tape.

This, then, is the real reason why golf hasn't caught on with the black community: It isn't cool to be a golfer in tha 'hood.

In a society that looks at sports figures like Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds, and Michael Vick as being role models, what the hell does America expect to happen when Tiger Woods comes along, swinging a big metal stick and chasing a little white ball around?

Does Tiger Woods make a basketball shoe? No. Does Tiger Woods have his own record deal? No. Does Tiger Woods wear anything that you would see on a young black male in the inner city (be honet, jerks)? Absoutely not. Does Tiger Woods sell anything that kids in the black community would like to buy? No... he sells luxury cars, luxury clothing (from Nike, ironically enough), and INSURANCE. Hell, I'm white and I don't want to hear about fucking insurance.

Obviously I am biased in my opinion. I am not black, so therefore I cannot speak on behalf of the black community. However, I am a realist and am able to observe trends in America. With that being said, my opinions rest solely on the observations I have made regarding professional sports and the tendency young African-Americans have in regards to the athletes in these sports.

Afterall, I can't turn on MTV without having it forced down my throat in advertisments and music videos... which don't include professional golfers.