Is it insensitive if I say . . .
They need to fire this ignorant bitch?
Golf Channel commentator Kelly Tilghman apparently thought that it was funny to suggest that other young golfers today should “lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley.” It took her two days to apologize. As of now, she still has her job.
Why?
If Imus can get shitcanned over the phrase “nappy headed ho”, then why does the pretty white girl get to stay after using a phrase that carries a plutonium-charge of racial insensitivity? Is it because she’s a pretty white girl? Is it because Tiger’s married to a pretty white girl, so a little joke won’t hurt his feelings?
It’s difficult to believe that a professional commentator would be this profoundly stupid, but there it is. Perhaps she didn’t mean any lasting harm. Perhaps she is just massively clueless. But really, using the word “lynching” and not understanding that it carries a racial conotation? In this case, I say let it be job-ending cluelessness (even allowing that she does hail from a place that elected Strom Thurmond governor and sent him to the senate for almost 50 years). Her alma mater, Duke, should be ashamed for producing an athlete that obviously learned nothing.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I agree..she gotta go. I mean..”lynch” are you serious. Have you not be paying attn to the situation in Louisiana this past year. The last thing out of her mouth, Tiger Woods being Black or no, should have been “lynch.”
Unless she was making reference to the great football player from the Denver Broncos
January 8th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Wow….
this merits much more than the hand-slap she’s being given…she should go…otherwise, the message is that there are certain circumstances where it’s ok to say something like that…good point about Imus…what an amazing double-standard…
January 9th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Yeah…she really needs to go. I understand there are a lot of racist, white, country club members that probably watch the show that don’t get the outrage, but this is fucking ridiculous.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Apparently you people don’t remember Fuzzy Zoeller, he of the infamous “fried chicken, collard greens, or whatever those people eat” comment…
Something I always wondered is why Tiger Woods is the target of so much racism when nobody cares about a guy like Vijay Singh (who is way darker than Tiger), even though he’s just as successful on the Tour.
Then again, even taking the racial connotation out of the comment aside, is she suggesting that the other players attack Tiger somewhere off the golf course and try to injure him so he can’t play? Is the PGA turning into the nWo? Tonya Harding?
Stupid, stupid, stupid…
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January 9th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
In no way do I want to defend the remarks, cuz they was FUCKTARDED. But Tiger’s cool with it (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080109/sp_wl_afp/golfuspgawoods), which you can’t say about the Rutgers lady basketball team because Don Imus was basically going for cheap laughs at their expense. Tilghman made the mistake of blurting out a suggestion probably immediately recognizing that it came off sounding terrible since it was about a black athlete. The relationship she had and has with Woods is miles above where Imus stood/stands with female African-American athletes as a whole.
Though, make no mistake about it, in any context, it was a stupid comment for a broadcaster of her experience to make. But it shouldn’t cost her a job. Imus was a serial offender who was WAY overdue for comeuppance.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Joe, love ya man…but she similarly didn’t apologize for it until it became a news item. So that “probably immediately recognizing” thing is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off the mark.
And seriously…Imus is employed to be funny…he started as a shock jock and kind of blurred that by becoming such a political show. What he said was an insulting joke…but if we fired or boycotted anyone who made insulting jokes, there’d be very little comedy out there.
This blonde chick is employed to report on a sport. She made a bad joke that not only had the potential to be insulting but (even jokingly) advocated violence. Definitely worse than a joke about hair and a questionably misogynist word. Imus was suspended quickly and fired before the Rutgers team had the chance to say they forgave him. But no one really cared what they said anyway, because they aren’t stars like Tiger Woods.
Oh…and I’m sure all the other people out there that were offended to hear someone suggest lynching a black, star athlete were no longer offended as soon as the cablanasian said he was OK with it. He might as well shorten that to canasian to completely take the BLA from BLACK out of the equation. :)
January 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am
“I don’t understand why women are involved with golf anyway. It’s a man’s game, and their milkcans just get in the way of swinging the clubs.”—paraphrased from CBS commentator Ben Wright
And don’t ask me why I know so much about golf.
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January 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Pardon The Interruption talked about this last night, and apparently Wilbon is friends with her- he had an interesting take as a black friend. Dig up the podcast on itunes if you get a chance.