Columnist – John Sammon
Poor Tiger Woods.

The media circus he’s subjected to because he cheats on his wife is another example of how the public persona of a famous person is subjected to hypocritical scrutiny by the public. In other words, if you’re famous, how the public perceives you is what determines whether your indiscretions are largely ignored, or as in the case of Tiger Woods, you’re crucified.

Golf is viewed by people as a squeaky clean sport, unlike boxing. If Woods was a boxer like Mike Tyson and cheated on his wife, hardly anybody would take notice. Boxers are perceived by the public as low-lifes.

Let me show you how this works using two movie performers of the 1940s, Charles Chaplin the comic, the Little Tramp, and Errol Flynn, the dashing Robin Hood hero of sword and horse movies. Both men had extra-marital affairs at the same time in the 1940s. Flynn had many, Chaplin a few.

Every time Flynn cheated, the public loved him more. It perfectly fit his image as a dashing rogue.

But when Chaplin the Little Tramp cheated on his wife, the public was outraged. The image of the Little Tramp, psychologically, symbolized the nobility of the downtrodden, the pathetic struggles of the lowly, common man. Such a person would never fool around with another woman. The fans couldn’t accept it. It was insult.

But not for Flynn. The image the public had of him perfectly fit his marital indiscretions. A classic double standard.

I mentioned boxing earlier. The same thing happened to Joe Louis. The first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, fooled around with white women and openly flaunted it in front of racist white America in 1910. He was roundly hated. When Joe Louis came along in the 1940s, he and his handlers were careful not to make the same mistake Johnson had. Louis was polite, respectful, had a black wife, the perfect non-threatening image for white America.

I think most white golf fans are willing to tolerate Tiger Woods having a white wife, but not his fooling around. Tiger is supposed to behave in a way that racists used to say, “He’s a credit to his race.” Numerous African American sports figures, performers, rock stars and others have had extra marital relations. Hardly anybody notices them.

Why Tiger?

The answer is partly the shock (to white America) of seeing a black man become the best in golf, a previously white-only sport, always noted for its more intelligent, refined, polite aura both in performers and fans. Many white Americans still haven’t gotten over it. They say in their mind, okay, this happened, but you (Tiger) better act just the way I want you to act. A higher standard than others.

I think the box Tiger found himself trapped in, as the highest paid athlete, spokesman for countless sponsors and products, the almost Jesus-like standards of conduct he must adhere to, the microscope of public and media dissection that follows his every move, might provoke in anybody a desire to somehow rebel, to do something reckless, naughty.

John F. Kennedy was trapped in the same box. He had to live up to the world’s image of him as a saint and a hero. When asked why he cheated on his beautiful wife, he said. “I can’t help it.”

Martial infidelity is a fact of life and practiced by millions of Americans. I’m not condoning it. Just castigating the hypocritical double standards with racist overtones that dictate how public figures are perceived.

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