Filed under: Golf & Tennis
Nordegren didn't divulge the details of her divorce settlement, but there are reports that she received more than $100 million after the split. She also says that she had no idea Tiger was having so many affairs with various women during the five years they were married.
Nordegren denies attacking Woods with a golf club on the night of his car crash. She is sticking to the story that she was using the golf club to get him out of the car, in spite of the fact that there appears to be substantial evidence to the contrary. For example, some have wondered how a tiny woman would bash out the back windshield of a truck when the man she is trying to pull out of the vehicle is in the front seat. Also, the fact that Tiger and his wife evaded local police interviews, with Tiger refusing to show his face for several weeks, adds further fuel to the fire of speculation.
My study of the experience of black athletes in America makes it impossible for me to not draw parallels to the O.J. Simpson incident 14 years ago. Like Simpson, Tiger was once the golden boy of corporate America. He could do no wrong and had the good, honest, trustworthy image that is incredibly rare among black male athletes. After the incident, Woods has come to be defined as an unethical demon and bad human being who deserves whatever he gets. Welcome to the club, Tiger. You are now considered to be one of the angry and undisciplined black male athletes of America. That's what happens when you are accused of hurting a pure, sweet, innocent damsel in distress.
Nordegren, like the late Nicole Brown Simpson, is America's blond-haired angel. No one wonders if she might have attacked Tiger with that golf club, but to me, that would make her a domestic abuser. While we might laugh about the possibility that she could have been trying to seriously hurt her husband, there is almost nothing she could have done that would justify Tiger chasing her into the front yard with a golf club. If the incident had been reported the other way around, the focus would not be on Nordegren's cheating but Tiger's violence.
Another interesting aspect of Nordegren's "Tour of Innocence" is that we are somehow convinced that she deserves $100 million because she was hurt in a relationship. Sure, all's fair in love and divorce, but many of us would be more than happy to get nine figures of compensation every time we are disappointed by someone we love. Don't get me wrong, Nordegren's experience was certainly tragic. But she gets to walk away with $100 million for her emotional distress, and all of that money was earned by someone else. I know a lot of people who'd love to deal with a bad husband for a $100 million.
At the end of the day, this is just another broken relationship. It's not some kind of riveting dramatic tale that makes Elin Nordegren a hero for abused women everywhere. This situation has caused us to trade one facade for another: First, we spend 13 years believing that Tiger Woods was far more pristine and perfect than he truly was. Now, we're starting to believe that the former nanny who spent five years in Tiger's bed was completely innocent in the breakdown of her marriage, deserves $100 million for her heartache, and also had no idea that her husband had a propensity for sexual deviance. Perhaps it's time we let go of all the illusions.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.