Naomi Osaka, Tiger Woods and stepping out of the shadows
The nature of their sports and backgrounds gave Naomi Osaka and Tiger Woods a unique spotlight. They’ve chosen to use it very differently.
My pops introduced me to golf when I was about nine or 10. It was shortly after he had picked up the game, but the catalyst was the same for him and myself — a young Black man had dominated the Master’s a few months ago, and (like every sport I have ever played), he was going to teach me this one. But unlike every other sport (basketball, baseball, football), he didn’t really have any idea what he was doing. Past the grip and what each club was named, he was largely bewildered at the culture and logistics of the game. There was a reason — golf had been actively denied from people that looked like us since it had been brought to this country.
But it was different now. Now we had a young, seemingly cool, Black man that was not only playing but dominating. He wasn’t Calvin Peete, a relatively well-known, but largely unaccomplished golfer. This was it, this was Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, and Michael Jordan rolled into one. Except, it turns out, he wanted nothing to do with us.
One of the last times I cried was when Tiger won his last major tournament — ironically, The Masters in 2019. I called my father after Amen Corner when it looked like he may pull it off and we watched together via telephone. It was great. It was powerful. It was simultaneously because of and in spite of Tiger, because he had long since told us that he was Cablinasian — a term coined by Tiger Woods used to describe his ethnic background. And while he’s free to self-identify as he chooses, he’s since stayed out of any Black Lives Matter conversation, only willing to relent and state that he supports the troops and has golfed with President Trump. With his mother being Vietnamese and his father being Black, I sort of shrugged and just assumed he didn’t understand or feel comfortable with his place in America despite both being born here and having a Nike commercial that intimated the opposite.
Naomi Osaka has chosen to walk the most difficult path
Fast forward to the first week of September and Naomi Osaka’s run to her second US Open title and third Grand Slam championship. Her recent on-court accomplishments were enough on their own to warrant merit, but it was her decision to wear the names of Black victims of police violence and cultural racial injustice on her facemask before every match that drew the most attention. And while athletes around the sporting spectrum have done it, her decision had the added weight of being in a solitary, and primarily white sport — one akin to golf. But while her sport and racial background are similar to Woods’ (Osaka’s father is Haitian and her mother is Japanese), her decision to voice her support of Black lives couldn’t be more divergent.
Without teammates or even many competitors that look like her, Osaka decided to speak loudly and clearly to the problem. And while there were some cringe-worthy conversations regarding her actions, the most impactful question came not from her interviewers, but from Osaka herself. When asked about the statement she was making by donning the masks, she replied “what was the message you got?”
Her latest title came on the heels of her leading a brief boycott of the Western and Southern Open following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The statement she released regarding her decision laid out the player’s thinking about not only her powerful action but her place in society — as a Black woman. And while she openly questioned what her activism would accomplish, she has already started changing the discourse globally. Over the course of a handful of weeks, 22-year-old Osaka had managed to be more boisterous and straightforward with her support of Black people than Tiger had managed over the course of his entire career.
Perhaps the age difference plays a key role in her willingness to speak out regarding issues of race. Players are far more outspoken regarding issues of politics and society than they were decades ago. Despite financially supporting several Black causes, Michael Jordan infamously stayed out of politics for most of his basketball career — with the infamous quote, “Republicans buy sneakers, too” attributed to him, even if he may not have actually ever said it. A generation later and LeBron James has publicly called the 45th sitting US President a “bum.”
But for whatever unease Woods has felt expressing pro-Black sentiment or even having a relationship with his siblings from his Black father’s side of the family, Osaka seems to move in life with the same strength, confidence, and grace as she does on the court.
No one can force activism onto anyone, regardless of race. Truthfully, it is a largely thankless proposition given the only incremental improvement one may see in their lifetime. Deciding to become an activist athlete after amassing a large platform can be deleterious to personal and professional relationships. Osaka, despite being famous for a relatively short period of time, has decided to be an outspoken advocate for the fight for Black equality.
Woods has decided to remove himself not only from the conversation. Despite both having mixed heritages, Osaka has decided to embrace her Black ancestry while Woods refuses to identify with the same. And while deciding against joining the struggle for racial equality is understandable, the hard and noble choice is to take the opposite path. Osaka is a fine example of that, and it’s great that young sports fans won’t have to root for athletes that look like them, even as those stars fail to support the community that bore them.