I Don’t Care for the Masters
How far have we really come? Can you name one other Black player on the PGA Tour?
I’m not trying to rain on the parade or spoil the party here. My intent is not to put a damper on the pageantry of one of the most celebrated golf tournaments of all time. Something just doesn’t sit well with me.
Set in the mid sized town of Augusta, Georgia, the Masters captivates the city first and eventually the entire nation. Having lived in Augusta for a short period of time I know firsthand that the city shuts down once a year and caters entirely to a golf tournament. More than any of the other majors, the Masters holds a place of reverence and inspires awe.
In spite of all that I find the Masters tournament to carry the stench of injustice and covert racism. I challenge any of our readers to research the history of the Masters individually and golf as an entity. As a sport that thrives in the South, golf has endured her share of racial trials. To me all of those trials can be summed up within this golf tournament.
I guess the real point of this article is to fight the celebration of a tournament held at a location where I or people similar to me are not welcome. Not just Black Men but minorities as an entity and women as well. This isn’t just Augusta either; this is the whole of elite country club golf society.
Due to the fact that these clubs operate privately, social integration laws included in civil rights legislation don’t apply. Simply put you can let in who you want to let in. Let’s take a minute to think about this. What good does this do? How is the game of golf served?
In writing this I had to ask myself what the point was. Why am I putting this out for others to read? Awareness is the answer. While you watch Tiger Woods’ quest for the grand slam consider the backdrop. Know that Fuzzy Zoeller’s “Fried Chicken and Collard Greens” comment means more in Augusta, Georgia, in the cradle of the old south than it does in other parts of the nation. Realize that the “lynch him in a back alley” comment followed by the noose cover on a major golf publication carries more weight here than other places.
Know in your heart that if you wanted to play a few holes at Augusta National that you couldn’t. Not because you aren’t good enough or rich enough. It’s because you don’t fit the bill. You aren’t what they’re looking for. Remember that while you watch the Masters.
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April 10th, 2008 at 7:14 am
I won’t and don’t watch the Masters for the reasons you listed because I’ve always smelled that stench whenever it comes up and golf and major sports as a whole. I enjoyed Tiger’s first win there but when he only played up the significance of his win just to move more product for Nike that was it for me. Let the ‘necks down there have their private club because it truly won’t be long until it’s wiped off the face of the earth thru the passage of time. Or maybe I’m being optimistic.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:04 am
[...] thestartingfive.net [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
mmmm! A lily Anglo-Saxon sport, in the cradle of confederacy with an event name the Masters, yeah that about sums it up!
April 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
“Due to the fact that these clubs operate privately, social integration laws included in civil rights legislation don’t apply. Simply put you can let in who you want to let in. Let’s take a minute to think about this. What good does this do? How is the game of golf served?”
For the sake of accuracy, I’d assert that the laws passed were not integration laws, but desegregation laws - and the difference between Public spaces and Private spaces is enormous. Black folks have to have enough pride, organization, purpose and will to do things in private that elevate our collective. Not every discussion, meeting, or course of action is for public consumption. Under no circumstances should the STATE or “white” folks (well-meaning or otherwise) have the right to intrude. By extension, there are places where other groups (”racial”, religious, educational, historical, linguistic, or other) can/should/do/will congregate amongst themselves. The Masters tournament is one such place.
The Masters has been an affront to the Black community in Augusta for many reasons - but it’s arguable that the principle reason is that Black folk in Augusta are not wealthy independent of “white” folks. Most are still wage earners - and low wage earners at that. Many are only seasonally employed which increases poverty. Many have been subjected to an inferior education system - and the Black churches in that community have not effectively pooled their resources or organized labor to transform Black-”white” relations in that city. If Black folks in Augusta had just as much money (or were relatively comparable) and were still concerned about the Masters, I’d have to wonder about their sanity.
The work is not about The Masters tournament or even Black golfers who would be able to do for self. The work is about the people of Augusta and the economic, social and political challenges they face to establish a better life for themselves and their children. If they’re going to stay in Augusta, they’re going to have to come together to flex a little muscle - and that has very, very, very little to do with the Masters.
One a final note - you are to be commended for putting this piece together because you’ve rightly put “awareness” at the center of the conversation. You wrote:
“In writing this I had to ask myself what the point was. Why am I putting this out for others to read? Awareness is the answer. While you watch Tiger Woods’ quest for the grand slam consider the backdrop. Know that Fuzzy Zoeller’s “Fried Chicken and Collard Greens” comment means more in Augusta, Georgia, in the cradle of the old south than it does in other parts of the nation. Realize that the “lynch him in a back alley” comment followed by the noose cover on a major golf publication carries more weight here than other places.
Know in your heart that if you wanted to play a few holes at Augusta National that you couldn’t. Not because you aren’t good enough or rich enough. It’s because you don’t fit the bill. You aren’t what they’re looking for. Remember that while you watch the Masters.”
Thanks.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Let me say off the top that it is definitely against my religion to play golf, or even to watch it, for all the reasons you’ve stated here. For me, that’s never changing.
But for a number of my closest friends who have achieved high levels of education and success, as I have, golf is a “sport” (more likely a “culture”) they have taken on and enjoyed as we all have grown older.
When I hit them with the history of racism, sexism, elitism, and exclusion that permeate golf’s “culture” (a living history they are already acquainted with), they tell me they simply avoid the private clubs and golf on the cheap at the public courses. When I press the issue further and say that you couldn’t golf at the country clubs even if you wantd to - and deep down inside, you know you desire that level of acceptance from them, and that their quiet denials leave you frustrated and demeaned, they just tell me if I golfed a few holes with them I’d feel better about it. I tell them to they can ride that lil golf cart straight to hell.
And so it goes.
Help me out, o wise ones! What can I say to stem the tide, keeping in mind that these bros ain’t “sellouts” and they ain’t stupid. They’re some wholesome, down to earth cats, they’re from the hood and still have love for the hood, but all of a sudden they like to golf. I mean, I can tell them that a cat like Tiger Woods ain’t nuthin but a descendant of Sambo and we can all agree. Still they want to golf… I can’t explain it.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
You guys have said it all. I don’t watch either.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
“Help me out, o wise ones! What can I say to stem the tide, keeping in mind that these bros ain’t “sellouts” and they ain’t stupid. They’re some wholesome, down to earth cats, they’re from the hood and still have love for the hood, but all of a sudden they like to golf. I mean, I can tell them that a cat like Tiger Woods ain’t nuthin but a descendant of Sambo and we can all agree. Still they want to golf… I can’t explain it.”
Why do you want them to stop playing something they clearly enjoy?
Would you feel better if they pooled their resources and committed to a work project where they taught the game to youngsters using public courses?
Doesn’t the game require skills that can improve one’s capacity to be quiet, calm, still, resilient and imaginative? Could not our children benefit from something like that?
Could you guide these brothers into buying the land and building a course of their own?
There is a great deal of potential here - but you should know what you want and why. These men putting down their clubs does not move US forward. What is the next forward step? What is the next for-our-ward step?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
BTW:
If the maxim “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” is true, it’s worth noting that “golf” is not the “game.” The game is “desire.” The game worthy of contempt (and I hear you LP) is the desire of your associates that has been uncoupled or separated or even divorced from the principle of ownership and work.
God Bless the Child…that’s got his own.
If your friends want to play - the way they seem to want to play, they should be willing to do the work - and not dream of playing with “white” folks in expensive private clubs where their humanity is assailed NOR should they subject themselves to inferior public courses. They can do one of several things:
1) Create a non-profit tax-exempt fund raising group called “Friends of (fill in the blank Public Course).” This would allow them to thoroughly REVAMP and improve the quality of the public courses - and make them authentically their own.
2) Build a private course.
3) Continue to be marginalized men in a world where boldness and action is required for even the slightest modicum of respect.
Your contempt and love is clear. I hope this helps. As I said up top, there are options - and they require action…the possibilities are endless…”Up you mighty golfer, you can accomplish what you WILL!”
April 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
The activist in me gets what you’re saying and agrees wholeheartedly. The sports fan in me knows that each and every time Tiger sets foot on Augusta, he is a threat to make history, and I don’t want to miss that at all. And one of my favorite sports moments ever, is when Tiger hugged his dad back in ‘97..a moment that gets played every year around this time. So I watch to see if Tiger can get another moment similar. I think its possible to feel both ways, without slighting anyone.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Temple3
Your blue print is spot on. I too am at the stage were I’ve ceased to chastise family if they insist on doing what seems contrary to themselves by going along to get along. The art of war teaches us to make gold from dross, thus your analysis indicates a few ways to spin that gold.
An aside I have even grown weary of many knee-grow athletes who would rather entertain than own, and not in the Michael Jordan/Magic Johnson house N***er state of ownership. This is why I am less a sports fan to day than yesterday; I can’t continue to see my people lay their souls bare on the coliseum floor for the chance to get their heads patted.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I have a question, and i hope its still in the context of the topic, but I have lots of friends that play golf, and to me its a game that they enjoy - its just that at the moment they are playing. I know that not one would play at a restricted club just for the sake of playing on a great course (or at least they would be too scared to tell me anyway, same thing in my book). So although I look at the venue of the Masters (as well as the name itself) completely differently, Golf is just golf. But then I had to ask why am I so perturbed by the pics I’m seeing every year now of the black celebs at the Kentucky Derby? At least with the Masters in Augusta, its a clear straight up, y’all niggers ain’t welcome for real, not even in the cosmetic sense. Forgive me, but I can respect that. Its a take it or leave it thing with them, so fine, at least you know exactly where you stand….outside. So screw’em.
But the Kentucky Derby (and Lord knows horseracing’s history in the USA is….geez, y’all know) has allowed some negroes to host parties and every year as I look at the pics, I am more and more both amused and repulsed by them. Have you guys seen those pics of the women in their big fancy hats and the guys in their pastel suits……it really is very funny when you think about how incredibly asanine it is….but its also pretty sad that these folks seem oblivious to the whole history of the Derby and the many “traditions” that event celebrates.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Miranda
Malik Shabazz’z anology of the house knee-grow and the field knee-grow is evident not only on the plantation but in our every day lives. Unfortunately since his-story and our-story is best qualified to reward our research, and since the Anglo-Saxon led governments across the NAU have figured out that if we hide the books or doctor up the facts, we will continue to believe that Anglo-Saxon cultural institutions and artifacts are the sun moon and stars of our existance.
Playing golf, enjoying the pagentry of the Kentucky derby or even NASCAR (as examples) may appear harmless on the surface. But we all must over stand that EVERY THING the White Supremist does is HIGHLY SYMBOLIC. Symbols re-enforces ancestoral norms and cultural sensibilities. The only questions we need to ask of our selves is…whose ancestoral norms are we following and whose cultural sensibilities are we embracing.
There is a quote from the Qu’an, which states…”We have created you into nations and tribes not that you may hate each other, but so you may know and love each other?” yet I also remember a quote written in stone over 50, 000 years ago. which states…”Man know thyself!”
Self love and self preservation (cultural, spiritual, familial) is the first law of survival. It is a pre-requisit to a life of personal balance and a ground work for healthy cross cultural relationships.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Temple3
Thanks bro, that’s just what I needed. You know the old Poet jab jab roundhouse don’t work with my people like it does the weak minded! Your call to action beats my verbal jabs any day. I’ll let you know how it goes…
I’ll have more to say later, but right now I’ma sit down and watch Oaktown v. Nuggs put 150 points on each other (sans defense)!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Damn it’s nice to have you all back here.
Thanks fam.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Thanks for breaking that down for me Sankofa…I had to read what you wrote 3 times before I could clearly understand, but I do! lol……those symbols are subliminal and powerful at the same time. I grew up in Alabama, in a segregated small town around homes built 150 years ago, families still on the same land that their ancestors plowed and tilled, large (I mean as far as the eyes can see) cotton fields, restricted country clubs, everything Augusta is on a smaller scale. My parents did not in anyway teach me that the ole south had any redeeming qualities… but I am truly fascinated with the revelry and pageantry of those events and others like them. It is a wierd awe that I have seen in my female friends and relatives when it comes to these “symbols”..the big dresses, the hats, the mint juleps under the big oak as the cool breeze of the Mississippi engulfs the humid air…….see how easy it is for me to go there? Our history was stolen, so maybe as I get older my awe has turned into contempt because more and more i see it as yet something else symbolizing the fact that what we pass on to our children isn’t nostalgic romantic tales of yesteryear…our children inherit a weight.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Aint a thing sis, as long as we, you, I love ourselvs, warts and all, then we can be in a better position to remove those warts. The scars will just serve as reminders of the journey it took to get there. If we divest our emotions for a moment and be “clinical” in our assessment, then it would be so much easier to prescribe a healing formula. Part of that healing is culture. This is not the time of Africa before the fall of Kimit, we don’t have that MA’AT as before, yet we still retain the ancestor memories and (if Whte Supremacy can help it) some artifacts.
I am of a strong belief, and I have mentioned it previous, that we are in a war and have to practice symbolic and actual warfare. by that I mean, symbolic-doing all that is necessary to survive not as groups of individuals, but as viable, functional and progressive collective, community and nation with in a “nation” (corporation). We must practice actual warfare by any means necessary, this includes protecting our children (our rich and only true legacy) and our institutions, wether psychological, spiritual, economical or physical.
The ancestors await our decision.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Sankofa: Thanks. It’s “easier” this way - isn’t it?
Miranda…you’ve said it all in as poetic a fashion as I’ve heard. Thank you for the vivid picture you’ve painted of past, present and future.
Mizzo - it’s good to be back.
LP: My pleasure and best of luck. If I can do anything to help, you know where to find me. In fact, I may have some very nice tools for you. They’re not free, but they pay for themselves (unlike the war in Iraq).
April 11th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Why do symbols hold the keys to the chains?
http://greeneyezz-reflections.blogspot.com/2007/10/right-brain-vs-left-brain.html
Right Brain function and FUTURE Planning is determined in large part by the SYMBOLS that you use or that use you. SYMBOLS are how we make meaning of all things that are not explicit - and 90% of our world is NOT explicit.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:07 am
Sankofa,
That got me to thinking about something else: From my first memory until I left home for college, every Sunday in that small Alabama church, we sang about riches in heaven….about old earthly worn out bodies, but no pain in heaven….about suffering, but that’s okay..no suffering in heaven.
Unless it was the contractor adding to the building, no white person has ever stepped foot in that little Alabama church, and yet the legacy of how slaves were kept in line is right there, suffocating the sanctuary…and there are hundreds…thousands of these churches with millions of us in them, unwittingly telling ourselves its okay to be downtrodden and beaten because its some sort of destiny to be, in fact its righteous if you suffer really bad. It took me more than 3 decades just to see that, and I’m sure my great-great-grandmother Catherine is looking down at me saying “took you long enough, finally the cycle can be broken”…so as to your last line..if our ancestors are awaiting our decision…lets hope they’re really really patient. Some of this stuff is so ingrained you don’t even know its there.
T3,
Thanks…but do you know how deflating it is to realize all this time I thought I was never a victim of wanting “the bluest eyes” just to figure out…”oh, snap…I do”?
April 11th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I can not name one black player on the PGA tour. If you know of one please let me know. Tiger woods has made it perfectly clear that he is caublinasian. If that’s what he wants to be acknowleded as then so be it. Congratulations to the caublinasian community, you must be proud.