Did I hear that right? No, Tiger Woods didn’t say Kamala Harris had a fake Black accent

History-making golf pro Tiger Woods famously told talk show host, actor and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey that he struggled to “check a box” that described his ethnic background. Between his parents, his traceable roots were Black, Chinese, Native American, Thai and Dutch.

Now, an Instagram post says Woods publicly criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, whose father is Jamaican and whose mother was Indian, as not being authentically Black. Harris is the 2024 Democratic nominee for president.

“‘Kamala’s fake black accent is embarrassing and extremely offensive – Tiger Woods’,” text on an Instagram photo said. The photo looked like a screengrab of an X featuring images of Woods and Harris.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads, and Instagram.)

But Woods didn’t say this.

Although the Instagram post doesn’t say so, the X post pictured is a self-described parody account with the username @PGATUOR. That’s not to be confused with @PGATOUR, the account belonging to the organization that runs several professional golf tournaments in North America. 

But not everyone was in on the joke. Roderick Campbell, a rapper popularly known as “Uncle Luke,” for example, criticized Woods for the comment.

Neither Woods’ main social media accounts nor his website show he said anything recently about  Harris, let alone her accent. 

When we searched news clips, all we found about this topic were stories that debunked the viral post.

We messaged Woods through emails listed on his and his foundation’s websites but received no reply.

We rate the claim that Woods criticized Harris’ accent Pants on Fire!

By

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu

Staff writer

September 4, 2024

Truth-o-meter Ruling

Pants on Fire!

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• The originating X post containing this claim was made by a self-described satire and parody account.

• Tiger Woods has not recently made any public comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a review of news stories and social media accounts.

Statement

Image claims Tiger Woods said “Kamala's fake black accent is embarrassing and extremely offensive.”

Context

a photo

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Instagram posts

Statement Date

September 2, 2024