Should Kelly Tilghman of The Golf Channel be fired for her comments on Tiger Woods?

Question

She said that [young PGA Tour stars] should take Tiger and "lynch him in a back alley".

Very poor phrasing and bad taste, but I don't think she meant any disrespect. It's too bad a word like "lynch" is used in every day language...

I think it shows that remnants of an overt racist past is still floating around in "white" America.

Answer 1

fire her

Answer 2

Kelly Tilghman actually played collegiate and professional golf, shes not just another pretty face in front of a sports telecast like many others.  She shouldn't be fired, but definitely a poor choice of words.

Answer 3

Even though she might not have meant it to be overtly racist, this definitely is a "Crash" moment.

The term 'lynch" only reflects the racism and prejudice that exists in society, spoken or unspoken.  

Regardless of what she meant by it, it is inappropriate and unprofessional.  The Golf Channel should issue a public apology.

Answer 4

They suspended her!

Answer 5

I would say that female announcers who have never played the game or sport they announce should be "Lynched in a back alley." The phrase was bad but I'd like to think america is moving to a point where they can just laugh, and not get offended.

As for the announcer though. It's time to find a new job. and for all the sideline female reporters, "SHUT UP AND LET US WATCH THE GAME!!!!!!!!!"

Answer 6

In sticking to the actual question being asked: I would honestly have to say No - she shouldn't be FIRED for her comment.

As a black male, I must admit that my initial reaction was filled with rage (I've since settled down) I have seen this question already being asked in many, many other forums throughout the web (which I discovered while searching for other articles on the story). And what I find most frustrating (as I'm sure many other african-americans do) is comments like the one Dave (on this post) where he expresses "confusion" and "frustration" over the "racial sensitivity" in this nation. I've seen numerous posters make very similar comments. "It was only a joke". "Oh I'm sure she didn't mean it that way." "Why does everyone have to take it and overrate things?", etc. To anyone who has never had to DEAL with racism...and I mean RACISM...not the "reverse racism" c**p (that is bull and for another post)...you simply will never understand the effect such behavior has. It would be difficult to provide an equivalent example, or concept, because there is just no comparison.

Off the tangent and back to the question: Looking at the BIG picture...her choice of words was actually just poor, period. When you think about it, it ultimately doesn't matter the color of the person or whoever she was referring to. Doing anything "in a back alley" is just a dumb thing to say on live TV (for golf commentating, that is). But yes, considering our nation's history, any "decent" human being should wonder: If she were referring to any other (white) golfer, would the verb LYNCH have still been used? It's an unfortunate coicendence, and speaks to golf's relunctance to endure such dominance (perhaps by a black male?) I'd love to see one example of such "disdain" towards Palmer, Nicklaus, or Sneed in their day. And I never heard of such reports when Michael Jordan dominated basketball for a decade or so. It's not just "racial sensitivity", it's plain common sense. I would venture to guess that those who could care less about such a matter, could also care less on whether or not if we can ever devoid ourselves of racism in our society. That, to me, is the bigger challenge. A challenge that has absolutely nothing to do with Ms. Tilghman.

Answer 7

The truth of the matter is more times than not no one beats Tiger, but that he beats himself with some poor decision making. When EL TIGRE is on, no one can hang.

Answer 8

she should be lynch!!! I guess she is really tired of talking about Tiger Woods all the time. Maybe Mr. Palmer should slap her face or give her 40 lases on TV for making that kind of comment about fellow golfers.

did you know that the golf channel doesn't have anything about this on their website? hmmmmmmm

Answer 9

You'd think that a Duke grad would be smarter than to suggest that anyone, especially an African-American, should be lynched. Other words might have been acceptable but the word "lynch" carries a horrible social history and a huge amount of racial baggage with it. It's like saying people should make concentration camps for prominent Jewish professionals whom they aspire to overcome. That's not the smoothest of examples but you can see how the word "lynched" is really more than just a word. This is just more proof that Duke is academically overrated, just like their men's basketball team is every year.

Basically, she's a media personality and she should know better than to use such a word when referring to an African-American. She should have apologized immediately but she waited a few days. I fault both her and the Golf Channel for this delay. I guess they thought it would just be ignored but there was no way that this would fade away, given Woods' status and celebrity.

Fire her? Maybe but the Golf Channel should also look at itself and see who else was responsible for the delay of the apology.

Answer 10

First off Tiger Woods, from his own mouth, is not an African American, see brackets below

{In a sport considered by many as "white"-and viewed by some as racist-Tiger Woods is often described as the "Great Black Hope." His mother, Tida, as she is called by friends, bristles at this description.

"To call Tiger black is to deny my existence," she told Newsweek last year. "You know what my grandfather on my mother's side is? Dutch! White! Hah!"

While Woods writes "Asian" on forms requesting ethnicity-"Actually, I'm 90 percent Oriental, more Thai than anything," he's said-Tiger feels his ethnicity should never be an issue. And, if he is a role model, it's simply because some people want him to be.  http://asianweek.com/101196/tigerwoods.h... }

Second of all to define lynching:  

lynch      /lɪntʃ/ Pronunciation Key -

–verb (used with object) to put to death, esp. by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.  

Nothing about race that I see there.  Sure there is the connotation of it associated with African Americans, but...  ummm.. Tiger is NOT African American.

Enough already of blaming present generations for sins of the past.  We are all responsible for ourselves, no more VICTIM mentality!

Answer 11

i dont think she ment anything by it at all i also think she should stop flriting with faldo just boink and get it over and done with

Answer 12

Lynching in the United States refers, primarily, to the practice in the 19th and 20th centuries of the humiliation and killing of people by mobs acting outside the law. These murders, most of them unpunished, often took the form of hanging and burning. To demonstrate a ritual of power, mobs sometimes tortured the victim.

Lynching became highly associated with Southern efforts to retain and enforce white supremacy after their initial defeat in the American Civil War. In their defeat, Southern whites resisted allowing full legal and civil rights to African Americans. The aftermath of war increased social and economic volatility. The formal end of the war meant that groups shifted to other means to try to resist Federal occupation and changes to the law.

The civil rights aspects of the short Reconstruction that immediately followed the Civil War, and then again later in the mid-20th century aroused anxieties among white citizens about African American political power. African American citizens and white allies were lynched during both these periods. Although African Americans were sometimes able to defend their communities, white militias were more heavily armed and had more military experience. Lynchings during the 1960s in Mississippi galvanized public support for the Civil Rights Movement and legislation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in...

Answer 13

People need to get over it.  She didn't say it in a racist or serious way.  I get so tired of the racial sensitivity in this country.  He is only half black anyway, maybe she should have made a Chinese water torcher coment.

Answer 14

Well, she certainly will not be fired as was Don Imus for his remark about the Rutgers' Ladies basketball team. Whether Kelly meant or did not mean harm isn't the point. As  a commentator of golf on the Golf Channel she should have controlled the brain before she opened her mouth. It's a wonder the Reverends Al and Jesse weren't all over that comment. Maybe they don't consider Tiger as fodder for their causes.

Answer 15

People need to lighten up, I'm tired of things being taken out of context and everything ending up being racist.

She didn't say white's should lynch that black golfer tiger woods in a back alley.  She said young golfers you lynch tiger in a back alley so they can have a better chance of winning.

So all of a sudden the word Lynch is racist, c**p I say.  h**l if somebody says watermelon should we all cringe and yell racism?

Stupid oversensitive people.

Answer 16

I don't think you should be fired for being stupid.

Answer 17

hecks yeah she should be fired.  Racist and jealous that Tiger Woods has a better looking wife than herself. There are two types of white women in the world.  The racists ones that make statements like that, and ones like Tiger's wife that have no issue.  

How many times have you heard "I've never been with a _(insert race here)____, not that I'm racist or anything", yeah ******* right you know you're RACIST AS h**l IF YOU'VE EVER SAID THIS.

Tiger should issue a statement directed at her to the media: "Don't be hatin!!!"

Answer 18

Suspended without pay for a month and demoted if possible.

What's with the thumbs down? What she said wasn't professional. It's her job people, she wasn't talking with her girlfriends at a club. When you do stupid c**p at your job you get reprehended for it. Geez.

Answer 19

No she shouldn't be fired.

Answer 20

As a huge fan of Golf and Tiger Woods, Kelly Tilghman's comment was way out of line! Even though the golf channel sees Kelly's comment as a non-issue, the Golf Channel should not have individuals such as Kelly Tilghman broadcasting events. It is not okay to have those kind of verbal mishaps happen over the airwaves. Kelly Tilghman's remarks should be punishable! The Golf Channels inability to see this as a "Non-issue" is problematic and allows these type of racial comments to happen again.

Answer 21

I don't even think that blacks joke with each other that much about lynching.  Can you imagine how it must have felt for your mother to tell you that your father was lynched by a mob?  People in the public eye should set a higher example.