The most famous person in the world right now is the new American President, Barack Obama, but just a few days before Election Day, it was another young man of mixed ethnicity, Tiger Woods.

A co-inky-dink you think? Not really as it was athletes like Tiger who helped pave the way for America to get over itself and elect a visible minority to the White House.

It really started just over 70 years ago when Jesse Owens demonstrated to Her Hitler that his Aryan racial superiority wasn’t all that. Shortly there afterwards came Joe Lewis, who took apart German heavyweight champion Max Schmeling just prior to WWII. Just under ten years later, it was Jackie Robinson who broke the colour barrier in Major League Baseball.

All three faced incredible social pressures. Hitler famously refused to shake Owens’s hand after he won one of his four gold medals. But when Owens returned home to receive the praise of a grateful nation, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt gave him the same treatment. Lewis may have been America’s poster boy on the world stage prior to the war, but during it, he wasn’t allowed to serve and fight with white soldiers. Robinson was abused both on and off the field by players and fans alike, but he refused to rise to the bait and simply turned the other cheek and allowed his play to answer his critics.

These three, in particular, made a racist America a little less hyper-critical when it came to skin colour – and opened the door for the modern day black athlete to make a living in sports.

Muhammad Ali made it possible for a black athlete to also have a voice. After becoming the heavyweight champion of the world he rejected his “slave name” of Cassius Clay and adopted an Islamic title making him both controversial and polarizing, but he was so good in the ring, and so engaging out of it, most Americans embraced him. Later he refused to fight in the war saying, “I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger.” The establishment had finally had enough, stripping him of his boxing license and ability to earn money, but not his ability to speak.

America’s attitude on the Vietnam War was changed in no small part by Ali’s moral stance. The courts later backed him up and the athlete that was once a wedge between black and white America became an international American symbol and a U.S. institution. Today, though he is essentially removed from society due to being stricken with Parkinson’s syndrome, almost every American treats Ali with almost reverential respect.

The evolution of the black athlete took its next step with Michael Jordan. Where Ali dazzled with both his talent and his talk, Jordan amazed us with his athletic and corporate skills.

Forget all this radical societal change stuff. Don’t make waves – make money. Lots and lots of money. Now that’s something white America understands.

Scrupulously apolitical, the only thing Jordan ever said that indicated that he was even aware of the world outside of business and sports was, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

His model of staying above the fray, letting performance do most of the talking and grabbing hold of corporate America has been perfected by Tiger Woods.

Dominating the whitest of the world’s sports like no one has ever been able to do previously, Woods has become the first truly post-racial athlete. An icon for ability, determination and class, from the moment he appeared on stage a little over a decade ago, he’s never put a foot wrong. There are no controversial quotes, no questionable associations or bad decisions that seem to plague so many athletes. Instead, he presents himself as having a perfect life, the perfect family and being the perfect corporate citizen.

Which he is really, as he is about to become the first billion-dollar athlete the world has ever seen.

All this leads us, finally, to Barack Obama. The very idea of American’s allowing a black man to become the most powerful person on the planet was ludicrous up until a few years ago. However in 2004, at the Democratic convention, there was this skinning state senator from Illinois having his, “Hello world,” moment.

Murmurs began to emerge from the liberal ideologues that perhaps America was ready to take their next step in racial equality because, despite Barack Hussein Obama’s name, his story and demeanour could overcome where others had failed.

Raised by a white family from Kansas, and well-spoken to the extreme, he was always polite, always respectful. Nothing about him came across as the “angry black man” that had plagued political predecessors like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.

In a word, Barack Obama appeared to be “safe,” something that wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for other “safe” African-American’s preceding him.

From Owens to Woods, the progression of the black athlete from the hero of convenience to iconic role model helped dissolve a lot of the racial divide in the country.

Obama closed the deal by making it possible for America to actually forget about skin colour and think more about what would be best for themselves and their country as a whole.

Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch