DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704250018

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:   94 lines

REPORT TO READERS TIGER'S A CHAMP, SO COLOR HIM GREEN

Whether wearing his red Nike shirt or his green championship jacket, Tiger Woods dominated front pages around the country last week, including The Pilot's.

``TIGER'S TIME,'' screamed the Sports banner on Monday, April 14, after he won the Masters golf tournament in August, Ga.

But it was a relatively modest photo caption two days later, on Page A2, that drew the attention - and ire - of some Pilot readers. The photo showed a half-dozen ``inner-city youngsters'' in Washington, D.C., at putting practice with the headline, ``Taking a swing at being a Tiger.'' Cute.

What riled folks was a line in the caption describing Woods as ``an African American with some Thai roots'' and the ``first black person to win the Master.''

``As an Asian American, I take offense to the paper downplaying Woods' Asian heritage,'' e-mailed Monica Favorite. ``Why is his African-American background more important to emphasize? Why didn't you also mention that he was the first Asian American to ever win a major PGA tournament?''

It isn't even as simple as that. The multiracial Woods describes himself as one-fourth Thai, one-fourth Chinese, one-fourth black, one-eighth white and one-eighth American Indian.

The American melting pot, incarnate. Or, as his manager, Hughes Norton, says, ``a wonderful cocktail'' of ethnic diversity.

But instead of celebrating his diversity, the public has made Woods the target of an ethnic tug of war. The young golfer finally weighed in on the discussion this week, telling Oprah Winfrey that it bothers him when people call him an African American.

Growing up, he said, he came up with the term ``Cablinasian'' - referring to his blend of Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian.

All this is really just the focal point over a growing debate on how to refer to people of multiracial background. The fact that it shouldn't be necessary to label people at all falls on empty ears. It is too tempting for journalists and others to fit people into neat categories.

Other newspapers have also fielded complaints over the Asian-African issue. Gina Lubrano, reader's representative at the San Diego Union-Tribune, got reader backlash when stories and columns about Woods' Masters win emphasized his black heritage.

Yes, the Union-Tribune should have mentioned his Asian heritage, Lubrano wrote, but the African-American reference was pertinent. After all, the Masters tournament was played at a site that historically has been inhospitable to African Americans, back to its days as a former slave foundation.

Several Pilot staffers find it appalling that the how-to-label-Tiger debate is even going on, and I have to agree. Nia Meeks, a reporter who calls herself ``browngirl,'' sees it as an opportunity for the newspaper to clarify its stand on racial terminology. But she'd rather see Woods referred to as black than African American.

``African American refers specifically to only people of this country,'' she noted. ``Black is more of an experience of people of the African diaspora. For instance, Haitians, who are not African American, but black; dark-skinned Africans (rather than direct descendents of European colonists who lived in Africa) are black.''

I'm not fond of labels myself, but I can understand the temptation to celebrate Woods' multiethnic background and the victory of a Cablinasian - a marvelous athlete and nice guy who reflects something of almost all of us.

So the debate will go on. Until it's decided, if ever, maybe we can just refer to him by the color that really matters - he's the guy in the green jacket.

The buzz about that cigar. Over the past few weeks, we've heard from lots of readers about Buzz, The Pilot's Sports mascot who appears with the column of the same name.

Why, they asked, does Buzz smoke? ``You're hypocritical, quite frankly,'' said one caller, ``with the promotion of Buzz chompin' on a cigar while you're writing articles about the ills of tobacco use.''

As of Monday, Buzz has gone smoke free. ``The cigar was designed as a prop to illustrate the feisty Buzz character,'' explained Bob Fleming, sports sections editor. ``But clearly, the reaction from a good number of our readers showed that the cigar, and related tobacco issues, was getting in the way. We want readers to enjoy the Buzz for what it is: a fun, breezy, insightful weekday read. Period.''

Before Buzz went smoke free, we got more than 60 letters from fifth-graders at Great Bridge Intermediate School in Chesapeake who take part in a program called DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). They asked us to please make Buzz quit and offered alternatives: Let him chew gum, drink a soda or bounce a ball.

``I don't like the cigar,'' wrote Joshua Whitehurst, ``because it influences people to smoke.'' Ashlee Edwards took an even tougher approach: ``Lose the cigar,'' she wrote, ``or we'll squash the bug!!''

Ralph Priest, the Chesapeake police officer who teaches this DARE group, said the students were delighted that Buzz quit smoking. ``They've been real proud of their accomplishments,'' he said.

So far, only one other reader called to congratulate Buzz for quitting, and wanted to know if he's on the nicotine patch.

What next - a support group for Buzz? MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475 or send e-mail to

lynn(AT)pilotonline.com

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