𤨠Tiger, You Should Tell Trump To Respect The Office, Not US
đ This guy!
It goes without saying that the American people do respect the office. It is most likely in doing so that we can get democratically riled up because of who is in it. The perception held by Woods here is a mental distortion imbued by a socialized psychology of authoritarianism. Mr. Woods, we actually respect the office so much that we donât want anyone to come in and defile it.
Mr. Woods, I want you to trust and believe when I say this. If you happen to become the president of the United States some day (which doesnât take much nowadays) and you had done anyone one of â and I mean just one out of any of â the misdeeds that has scandalized Trumpâs presidency thus far, not only would you have been impeached by the House and removed from the office by the Senate, you would have been charged and sent to prison. They would have made the ultimate example of you. Now, howâs that for your respect for the office!
This is not me projecting onto Tiger Woods. I donât know him and I have never met him and I am not a stan of his. He is not my favorite golfer. (Dustin Johnson, Ricky Fowler, Brooks Koepka are the ones I cheer for) and I will not create fiction of his character. I donât feel the need to buy into what he has been selling and doing on and off the golf course, so Tiger Woods doesnât owe me anything, not even an explanation.
The reason being comes from what I have encultured from my Jamaican heritage and the saying goes like this: âFi mi spirit nevah tek to him from mawninâ. Translated: There is something about this guy that I never liked from the beginning. This is before he said he wasnât Black, before we were inundated with reports of his personal marital woes, and before and after he started winning championships.
However, since Woods did wander into the world of politics by making that statement for public consumption I can absolutely critique it. Tiger Woodsâ statements undoubtedly suggests that no matter how dangerous or incompetent the occupant of the White House is we must respect the person merely because of the the gravity of the position held. Yes. This seems mindless, but it isnât completely mindless. The argument demonstrates a world view of how Americans should behave and act under any sort of leadership. It is also a vision of what America should be, which I imagine a great deal of Woodsâ fans as well as supporters of Trump share. This bold fanatic devotion comes from this sense of a shared identity. It would not be inaccurate to say that Tiger identifies with Trump.
I have often observed Tigerâs disdain for the media, no matter how painstakingly polite in his attempts at dealing with the mics and cameras he seems disgusted to have to talk with them before and after interviews. It would not be inaccurate to say that Woods and Trump hold the media in contempt.
Both men are rich and famous, which not only sets them apart from the masses but exults their status as members of a different society. A society that is to be respected no matter what, because of the titles they hold and the brand of leadership they display.
In an article published by the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Thomas Pettigrew, a research professor from the University of California, Santa Cruz, asserts that this sort of authoritarianism and social dominance orientation has widespread appeal.
âAuthoritarianism is typically triggered by threat and fear, and authoritarians tend to view the world as a very dangerous and threatening place,â writes Pettigrew, adding that it typically begins early in life as an aspect of personality and leads to some form of right-wing political ideology.
Social dominance orientation is marked by a preference for social hierarchy and domination over lower-status groups. People who exhibit this preference tend to be driven, disagreeable, and relatively uncaring seekers of power. They describe themselves as motivated by self-interest and self-indulgence.š
Both men are also extremely and nauseatingly competitive. Woods rarely ever seems to be just having fun on the golf course. He is no Phil Mickelson.
Trumpâs prejudice seem tolerable to Tiger Woods. In fact they both appear to identify with certain biases and Tigerâs pandering to whiteness is indicative of this shared ideology by way of the intergroup anxiety on display and in full view.
Intergroup anxiety is the social phenomenon identified by Walter and Cookie Stephan in 1985 that describes the ambiguous feelings of discomfort or anxiety when interacting with members of other groups. Such emotions also constitute intergroup anxiety when one is merely anticipating interaction with members of an outgroup.[1]Expectations that interactions with foreign members of outgroups will result in an aversive experience is believed to be the cause of intergroup anxiety, with an affected individual being anxious or unsure about a number of issues.[2] Methods of reducing intergroup anxiety stress facilitating positive intergroup contact.²
Yes. Tiger Woods is a part of this ingroup and as part of this ingroup it is not inaccurate to assume that he too shares most of this ingroupâs anxieties and fears about the outgroups. While many may see Tiger Woods cultural betrayal as an issue â and it may very well contribute to being one â but at the heart of his racial forgery is the colonial mentality espoused in support of this Americanized cultural hegemony.
cultural hegemony is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society â the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores â so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.[1][2]
The racial aspects that also underlies this thinking and posterity is this socialized psychology with politics. By downplaying his Blackness, Woods panders to the institutional benefits of whiteness. I believe that Woodsâ anxiety is heightened which leads to a passive aversion to Blacks in general and an aggressive avoidance with association. The behavior is ostensibly apparent in the public view, but privately an assessment would prove difficult and evasive.
Tiger Wood never intimated that he voted for his golf buddy Trump, and it really doesnât matter if he did or didnât. His statement alone reeks of the intergroup anxiety he feels and of a misconception of how respect is earned.
Respect is not earned so much as it is to be demanded according to this logic. For me to respect Donald Trump for merely the titles he held prior and now during his presidency, I would have to have overlook his criminal personality.
For an individual with a criminal personality, just thinking something makes it so. He believes that he is a powerful, controlling person with whom others must reckon. He perceives himself as the center of the universe around which all else rotates. He demands that others agree. âRespectâ means that others give him what he thinks he deserves. If his lofty and unrealistic expectations are not met, he takes it personally â put down, diminished as a human being. He then becomes irate, blaming others for âdisrespectingâ him.Âł
Respect isnât granted simply by holding a title â especially one that is currently under investigation of being usurped by Donald Trump. Tiger Woods and the like may perceive their respect this way and though Tiger has provenly earned his respect in golf by his athletics in the sport, outside of it there is very little respect he has earned in terms of character. Much like Trump, outside of his real estate acumen and reality show persona, the president has earned little in terms of respect outside of that domain. Coincidentally both men struggle to maintain that success within those respective fields to competition much to their chagrin in their respective careers.
And more so, the unearned respect they have failed to achieve quite possibly has a lot to do with the overwhelming flaws in character.
