Tiger Woods and the New Racial Order

CASHMORE, Ellis (2008) Tiger Woods and the New Racial Order. Current Sociology, 56 (4). pp. 621-634. ISSN 0011-3921

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract or description

There is no more serviceable celebrity than Tiger Woods. He is a colour- free emblem of a new America in which racism is dead and there are no barriers to progress for any member of its citizenry – a new racial order. His success obscures the grimmer reality of contemporary America. This article examines Woods, less as a person, more as a commodity of immense utility: something that effectively advertises a society that has long struggled with the issue of racism, but has finally won. Woods functions as ambulant publicity: he studiously avoids engaging with any political or remotely sensitive issue and refuses to align him- self with any particular ethnic group. In a sense, he is what one writer has called ‘a new kind of white person’. On the evidence presented here, Woods effectively invites consumers not to challenge racism directly, but to buy commodities that externalize success and in this way avoid confronting the racism that continues to bedevil most of America’s black population.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	celebrity commodification consumer culture culture industry race Tiger Woods
Faculty:	Previous Faculty of Health Sciences > Psychology, Sport and Exercise
Depositing User:	Ellis CASHMORE
Date Deposited:	21 Apr 2013 08:03
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2023 13:37
URI:	https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/872

Actions (login required)

View Item