Sometimes, people say things that they don't mean. Sometimes, they say things that are insensitive.
And sometimes, people just don't think before they speak and what comes out is, to put it bluntly, just plain dumb.
Golf Channel (yeah, I'm surprised anyone caught it either) announcer Kelly Tilghman, the first full-time female play-by-play golf announcer, and a former golfer at Duke University, was apparently trying to say that the young players will not be able to touch Tiger Woods unless they physically take him out of the game.
What she ended up saying was that the players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley." Two days later, she apparently apologized.
Yeah, I can't even get mad at this one because it is too obviously ignorant to invoke any real deep-seated emotions. Following on the heels of Don Imus, this just goes to show how difficult it is for us to step into the shoes of people who are not like us. It's one thing to say something seemingly racist in private, but when it is said in public, I must assume that the speaker didn't think there was anything wrong with what he or she said.
And then you get heat for it, and you learn to think before you make jokes that might offend people. I wouldn't fire her, though. She's relatively new to the game (the broadcast game), and she made an insensitive joke about Tiger Woods, the most hallowed American athlete there is. That is punishment enough.
And sometimes, people just don't think before they speak and what comes out is, to put it bluntly, just plain dumb.
Golf Channel (yeah, I'm surprised anyone caught it either) announcer Kelly Tilghman, the first full-time female play-by-play golf announcer, and a former golfer at Duke University, was apparently trying to say that the young players will not be able to touch Tiger Woods unless they physically take him out of the game.
What she ended up saying was that the players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley." Two days later, she apparently apologized.
Yeah, I can't even get mad at this one because it is too obviously ignorant to invoke any real deep-seated emotions. Following on the heels of Don Imus, this just goes to show how difficult it is for us to step into the shoes of people who are not like us. It's one thing to say something seemingly racist in private, but when it is said in public, I must assume that the speaker didn't think there was anything wrong with what he or she said.
And then you get heat for it, and you learn to think before you make jokes that might offend people. I wouldn't fire her, though. She's relatively new to the game (the broadcast game), and she made an insensitive joke about Tiger Woods, the most hallowed American athlete there is. That is punishment enough.
4 comments:
I agree--she shouldn't be fired. In fact, the public shouldn't even be brought into the debate. The broadcast industry ("fraternity") should handle this in-house. Every latin, black, etc. announcer should then be allowed to make one racially insensitive comment per commentator against white people. Let's see how long these "insensitive" comments are tolerated.
Not to belabor the point, but how old is she? Tonya Harding's pay-for-pipe incident is more relevant and recent than lynchings. C'mon.
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but I have to point out that she is in a business where she is paid to know what she is saying. Unless they just hired her to look pretty, she should be accountable for what she says--she is a commentator.
Yes, I have to agree with all (3) of your comments.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's kind of crazy that the first verb she could think of was "lynching" which is a word people just don't really say, publicly or otherwise.
She's fairly attractive, I'm sure that didn't hurt! Unfortunately, they pay her to speak, too. Bummer.
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