I know this ridiculousness doesn't have anything to do with local golf, but as a journalist working at a golf magazine I had to espouse on this. In case you haven't heard, a couple weeks ago Golf Channel broadcaster Kelly Tilighman made a racially insensitive remark when she jokingly said that the only way young American players could stop Tiger Woods would be to gang up on him and "lynch him in a back alley."
In an appropriate response, The Golf Channel suspended Tilighman for two weeks. You should know that Tiger and Tilighman are friends. In fact, a couple weeks before the incident, Tilighman hosted a Nike Golf event in which Tiger debuted Nike's new line of clubs. After the gaffe, Tilighman apologized on-air, and called Woods personally to apologize, which Woods accepted. Tiger then issued a statement through his agent that he felt their was no racist intent in Tilighman's use of the word. End of story, right?
Just when the furor was beginning to die down GolfWeek busted out with the cover below.
As you can imagine, the cover received an overwhelmingly negative reaction. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called it "tabloid journalism" and called the article "outrageous and irresponsible." I agree.
Here are some of GolfWeek's editor David Seanor's comments:
"We're a weekly news magazine. The big story of the previous week was Kelly Tilghman, and that's what we chose," Seanor said. "How to illustrate that? It was tough. Do you put Kelly Tilghman out there? But was it so much about her or the uproar?
"I wish we could have come up with something that made the same statement but didn't create as much negative reaction," he said. "But as this has unfolded, I'm glad there's dialogue. Let's talk about this, and the lack of diversity in golf."
Clearly, Seanor thought he'd be fostering discussion about African-Americans in golf and on the uproar itself. Instead he's guilty of the same crime as Tilighman: underestimating and/or being ignorant of the emotional impact of one of the darkest (and most unreported chapters) in American history. That's the heart of the issue. People just don't understand the connotation the word carries.
For the greater part of this country's history, African-Americans and other minorities were systematically tortured and murdered for no other reason than skin color. I'm not exaggerating. Torture and murder. That's what lynching is: Americans committing terrorism against their fellow citizens. They mainly occurred from right after the Civil War into 1930s. There was a infamous lynching as recently as 1981 in Mobile, Ala. I'm fain to put a direct links to any specific educational websites because of the extremely graphic nature, but a good online exhibit is "withoutsanctuary.org" WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT. When I saw these photos I wanted to vomit. It's on par with photos of Holocaust victims. Maybe Seanor and Tilinghman didn't learn about stuff like this in school, I don't know. I'm 22, and in high school we were taught about the lynching of Emmit Till and how outrage over the 14-year-old's murder initiated the American Civil Rights movement.
The difference between Seanor and Tilighman is that Tilighman committed a slip of tongue in the heat of the moment. That's forgivable, but deserving of punishment. Tilighman was suspended for two weeks and this incident will follow her for the rest of her career. Suitable enough. Seanor had time to mull over the decision before running the image of a swinging noose. Far worse. It's always unfortunate when someone looses a job, but Seanor has since been replaced as editor of GolfWeek magazine.
In closing, I'd like to point you to how GolfWorld handled the issue. Al Barkow wrote an amazing story about one man's struggle to integrate professional golf and the hurdles he faced. It's a great read and really makes you think about the struggles of the many nameless golfers to earn the right to tee it up.
If you've made it this far, thanks. Again, I understand that this post has little to do with the stuff we write about in Houston Links. But people who have read this blog for awhile know what a sensitive subject this is for me. I welcome the chance to discuss an issue like this.
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Oh by the way. Cage won. Anyone see that? Go Woodlands!
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