I don't think I've ever had a "scoop" as strange as the one last week about Kelly Tilghman's notorious "lynch" comment on the Golf Channel.
It came in the form of a tiny item in a Tuesday newspaper column, and I didn't know until that evening that it hadn't been reported elsewhere before.
The eventual result was a two-week suspension for Tilghman, many tens of thousands of Internet hits for Newsday.com, e-mails from as far away as Taiwan and another opportunity to debate the state of race relations in assorted media outlets across America.
Friday I finally talked to the man who started it all, William Mangino, an assistant professor of sociology at Hofstra, who heard the comment live Friday night and alerted Newsday and the PGA Tour.
I wrote an article about him in the Saturday newspaper. He likes Tilghman's work, does not think she should be fired, appreciates the Golf Channel's willingness to put a woman in that job and believes Don Imus' remarks of last April (given his history of such humor) were "much more egregious" than the Tilghman incident.
Still, he was horrified by Tilghman's poor attempt at humor and equally so by the hurtful level of discourse from both sides in Internet discussions on the topic.
Click below to read Mangino's original e-mail to Newsday from last weekend as well as a followup he sent Thursday night.
Here's the first e-mail:
At about 10.25pm, Jan 4, 2008, during the Golf Channel broadcast of round 3 of the Mercedes Championship, announcer Kelly Tilghman, in conversation with Nick Faldo, said that today's young talented players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley". While said in jest, this is an offensive statement, especially when referring to an American of African descent.
(Would she ever say we should take a Jewish golfer to a gas chamber?). This is newsworthy and should be brought into public view. Ms. Tilghman, and the Golf Channel, should offer a public apology.
Here's the second e-mail:
Dear Mr. Best,
It pains me that this story even exists. It shows that regardless of
one's opinion on the issue, the United States has a long way to go in
healing the wounds of racial division. As I briefly scanned some
internet blogs on the issue, the hatred and vitriol people directed at
each other as they 'discussed' the issue shows that race continues to
haunt us. We cannot even discuss racially insensitive remarks without
resorting to insults and name-calling. I am especially struck by
pundits and bloggers who claim racial injustice is 'a thing of the past'
while at the same time hurling insults at those who expressed offense.
It is not up to "white America" to tell "black America" what is
offensive, and what is not, just as it is not up to Christians to tell
Jewish people what is anti-Semitic. The lessons learned are less about
Ms. Tilghman and Mr. Woods, and more about the racism that continues to
permeate our society, even when unintentional and without malice. That
such a remark can spontaneously roll off one's tongue, and that the
debate that followed was so cutting, says volumes about our culture and
how history continues to live on in the present.
Sincerely,
Bill Mangino
Comments (17)
Nice job on the scoop, and thanks to Professor Mangino for taking the actions he did.
But I am interested in knowing some things: How did you verify the accuracy of what was said in the original email? And what is Professor Mangino's ethnicity? Don't you think that is part of the story? Do you get any credit for the web traffic you generated at Newsday.com?
Neil,
Does newsday ever express gratitude towards you for all of the free publicity you bring them both through your increasingly popular blog and your always stellar journalism?
Luke
CC: I checked with the Golf Channel Monday and they confirmed the accuracy of the quote cited by Prof. Mangino. I'm not sure I agree his ethnicity is relevant, but since you asked he appears to be a Caucasian in his 30s who presumably is of Italian descent.
Luke: I suppose I'd have to say yes. I did share the Publisher's Award with Mark La Monica in the brand new blogging category for Newsday's highest internal annual honor for its staff, and that does come with a modest but appreciated cash bonus.
nice, well deserved.
Charlie, I'm curious why you feel Prof. Mangino's ethnicity matters?
He happens to be white and christian. Does that make his concern less valid than if he was black or jewish?
He's also a PhD in sociology and therefore very well read on and sensitive to matters of inequality.
Right or wrong, I find it hard not to try and ascribe motive in situations like this. I happen to now be pleased that a fellow WASP would be moved to complain about what he heard. Certainly the inappropriateness of the comment transcended anything that might have been revealed by learning more about the original complainer, but I think it is a part of the story.
Too many people in this country living in the past. We are going to have a hard time moving past all this racial garbage that comes up every 3 months if folks can't get over how things used to be.
There is hate in this world to be concerned about. NONE of it is coming from the golf channel. That network and Kelly clearly (if you watch it) have no problem with Tiger Woods or with people of color.
We all say stupid things from time to time. But most of us don't have a microphone that reaches such a large audience.
It is time for people and that inclues Mr. Mangino to stop digging under rocks in search of controversy. They need to save their energy for when someone is actually being racist.
I don't get the outrage. Lynch is in our dictionary and the definition is to kill, especially by a mob. It doesn't say anything about the term being sensitive to certain races or that the described killings usually resulted in someone with African descent, dying. Anyone who thinks that no white men have ever been lynched ..............
So is the term off limits when it comes to Phil Mickelson?
Kelly actually gave Tiger the greatest respect you could probably give him by saying the only way he is going dow is if the players gang up on him and kill him. She was being honest, not racist.
Ben:
You must admit words can be loaded with hurtful connotations. No, I wouldn't think a reference to lynching Mickelson would have had the same effect as it did when used while talking about Woods.
I actually think it isn't appropriate for a commentator to make her point by suggesting someone will be killed. It's an odd way to show respect. Finally, watching the Golf channel and hearing an insensitive remark is not digging under a rock. I guess you think that the Professor should have sent an email to the commentator insted of the channel and the writer. Maybe that would have been just as effective, but maybe not. It cannot be ignored, however.
I wonder if he would have been as offended when Dan Lebartard stated that the Dolphins were losing because they had a Morman quarterback, Somoan, and Mexican in the starting line up? That happened 2 weeks ago on pti and I only saw one report about it on the big lead. He even wrote it in his newpaper until they quietly edited out of the online version. What about last tuesdays pti when Michael wilbon talked about Coach Tomlin "slavishly" relies on his point conversion chart? I guess that was okay as well. Its amazing how some comments snowball and other comments just go away with out anyone noticing.
Gambling in Casablanca?
So, Professor Mangino is shocked to see what has happened from his little e-mail to a SPORTS MEDIA COLUMNIST.
Uh huh.
This issue really worries me. I've read a lot of comment boards and articles and blogs covering Kelly Tilghman's quote. I fear this will be another incident that incites a good deal of anger but, in the end, will accomplish nothing.
I was born in the early 1970s, so I have no frame of reference for the injustices and horrors endured by the black community before and during the civil rights era. I've never witnessed legal segregation. I simply cannot fathom the mind-set that allows a society to force people to use separate water fountains because of the color of their skin. The dragging death of James Byrd Jr., decades after the civil rights movement, in Jasper, Texas, is a horror I can't wrap my brain around. To me, that act is as unfathomable as the Holocaust.
I certainly recognize that what Ms. Tilghman said was, one, crude and, two, incredibly hurtful because it can be classified as racist. I have great respect for those people who say it was racist. I am not here to argue that point.
I will say that I do not think Ms. Tilghman intended the remark to be racist. Honestly, when I first heard about this controversy, I looked up the word in the dictionary because I did not know it was exclusively a racist crime. And it isn't. However, for those people who remember when lynchings of blacks were all too common, lynching is a racist crime. Period. End of story.
But the matter as a whole unfortunately doesn't seem to be that cut and dry.
Maybe generational differences are at play to some extent in this matter. Some of us weren't even born then. Plus, I'm white, so if I had been alive then I wouldn't have been the target of segregation, which means I am incapable of understanding the fear and oppression of that time. As it is, I didn't suffer those wounds, so I don't know what it is like when something like this happens and they are ripped wide open again.
But I think something else is at play. Ms. Tilghman and Tiger Woods are said to be friends. So maybe when she looks at Tiger she doesn't see a black man. She sees her friend. I certainly don't know her. If the word "lynch" doesn't for her conjure images of racism and if she is color-blind when she Tiger Woods, I can imagine it didn't occur to her that she needed to filter her thoughts before she opened her mouth. It seems to me she essentially was saying, "Look, Tiger's the best. The only way you can unseat him is to KILL him. So give it up. Just be the best golf player YOU can be."
Suspending her was a one way to handle the situation. If it was with pay, it shouldn't have been. But I do not understand Mr. Sharpton wanting her fired. What would that ultimately accomplish? I wish he would take the opportunity to possibly do a nationally broadcast forum in which whites and blacks of all ages and varying viewpoints on the matter could come together for a civil discussion about why this sort of statement, even if made with zero intent to hurt, can cause so much pain.
Mr. Mangino, in the above e-mail, pointed out that this story is about much larger matters than what Ms. Tilghman said and more about "the racism that continues to permeate our society, even when unintentional and without malice. That such a remark can spontaneously roll off one's tongue ... says volumes about our culture and how history continues to live on in the present."
I understand to some degree what he is trying to say. However, aren't intent and malice what make something racist? Merriam Webster's defines racism as "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." I truly do not understand what about Ms. Tilghman's statement is racist.
Could someone PLEASE help me understand? I can understand the racial implications of her statement, but I don't equate those implications with racism.
The place to research lynching is *not* the dictionary. Many words have culturally and historically significant connotations to which the dictionary does not attend. One needs to study history, and in this case it is not so ancient.
To start, perhaps see this website: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm
Then perhaps read this NY Times Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/nyregion/21noose.html?scp=12&sq=noose
Below are some recent incidents involving nooses directed at black people. Kelly Tilghman did NOT participate in an act as heinous as these, but her "lynch" comment picks at these current realities.
Newsday, Jan 11, 2008. New noose incident in Hempstead Town building.
NY Times October 23, 2007 - By JENNIFER MEDINA; Noose Sent to Black Principal at Brooklyn School.
NY Times October 11, 2007 - By ELISSA GOOTMAN and AL BAKER; Noose on Door at Columbia Prompts Campus Protest.
NY Times: September 30, 2007 - By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Noose Found in L.I. Police Room.
Associated Press Jan 11, 2008.: St. Louis FD Roiled by Racial Tensions
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD [A] stuffed monkey hung by the neck, the other a noose tied around a cracker box.
CBS News Oct 12. 2007. Noose Found Near Ground Zero
CBS 5 RICHMOND. Noose Found Hanging At Richmond Liquor Store
1010 WINS ARCHIVE: Third Noose Found on Long Island (October 18, 2007)
November 15 2007. The Associated Press. Noose Found Under Bridgeport [CT] Black Police Officer's Patrol Car
Greenwich Time (Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.) Dec. 19, Greenwich police found a noose dangling over a desk in an office of the Connecticut Health of Greenwich nursing home
Hello. I accidentally posted my comment (#12) anonymously. I did not intend to do so.
Mr. Mangino,
I really appreciate you responding to my post. As a literature major, I fully understand that "many words have culturally and historically significant connotations to which the dictionary does not attend." However, I do think the dictionary provides a good, though woefully incomplete, starting point for the stripped down meaning of a word.
The first link you provided is one every American should have to access. To say I was horrified at the images is an understatement. In just a few seconds you were able to deepen my understanding as to why so many people have been not only deeply offended by but also fearful of Ms. Tilghman's remark.
I also think this passage from the second link provides a good summation of the underlying problem:
Rachel E. Sullivan, an assistant professor of sociology at Long Island University’s C. W. Post College, said most people do not understand what lynchings were. “They think it was a few guys coming in the night, in their hooded sheets, taking you away,” she said. ...
“But in reality these were whole, big community events,” she said. “Children and families would come to watch. Hundreds of people attended. They would watch a man being burned and mutilated before he was hung. They would pose for pictures with the body.
“If people had a grasp of what really happened at these things,” Professor Sullivan continued, “they would understand the power of the symbol of a noose.”
Plus, the list of recent news articles you provided brings to life the idea that "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it."
Which leads me to a question I wanted to ask at the end of my post last night. Because I had never learned the grizzly details of this part of American history and because I can understand how a remark such as Ms. Tilghman's "can spontaneously roll off one's tongue," am I a racist?
Because I do wonder if that question isn't on a lot of white people's minds right now. It's on mine.
If I am, what do I have to do to not be a racist? Or is it impossible for me not to be racist because I am white?
This event has caused me to turn the mirror on myself, and I am more than willing to do so. But I still have a hard time equating a remark that was stupid and insensitive with the person who made that remark being a racist.
I truly hope to hear back from you, Mr. Mangino.
I don't think anyone is trying to make the case that the commentator is a racist, only that what she said is inappropriate because of how it offends many people. Someone with a microphone and the reach of a TV channel shouldn't be allowed to say such a thing with impunity. She got what I thought was an appropriate sanction and she will be back, hopefully using a little more care when choosing her words.
I understand how remarks roll off one’s tongue. I have said, and will say, many stupid things in my life. This is why Ms. Tilghman should *not* be fired; she has no history of insensitivity. I attempted to call attention to a social context that produces such “jokes”. It is the everyday interactions--jokes, sayings, body language--that help maintain power relations. It happens all the time with gender too--I once played golf with a man who said after a bad shot “I’ll go home and beat my wife”. He was joking, I hope. To me, and many aware of our country’s history, the “lynch” comment made by Ms. Tilghman is analogous to a male commentator saying that the best female golfer should be raped. I shiver even using the word. That is the power of the term “lynch”.
In my opinion, we are obliged to turn the critical lens upon ourselves. I do not think Ms. Tilghman is a “racist”. But all of us, myself included, participate in a system that is “racialized”. I am not a “racist”, but I benefit from having white skin, especially thanks to a “welfare” program called the GI Bill, given to my father for his service in World War II. The GI Bill, along with the New Deal, built the great American “middle class” we now know. Black veterans were systematically excluded from the GI Bill, though a few did participate. If I had black skin, my father never would have gone to Columbia University on the government’s dime; he never would have moved to suburban Long Island (“restrictive covenants” legally prohibited black people from living in certain neighborhoods until 1969; I was born in 1967); and I never would have gotten a PhD, all because of the color of my skin. I worked hard in my life, but with different color skin, things would be very different. Who knows, maybe I would have gotten frustrated that my hard work didn’t pay off, so I turned to drugs, and then got busted on a mandatory minimum drug charge (since I might have been profiled on the New Jersey Turnpike), and now I might be in prison. I am privileged.
In a sense, we see two forms of racism here: people who hang nooses are one type. But the other type might be even more insidious precisely because it goes unnoticed. From everyday interactions--like a slip of the tongue--to large-scale organizational outcomes--like how the GI Bill benefits generations beyond the actual recipients--racism is “institutionalized” without anyone knowingly participating in it. That is a fraction of the “racialized” social context in which we live. And now I receive hate mail for calling attention to it.
I'm not american and I've never been to America! However, when I see the comment Mrs. Tilghman made, I would feel the same "innappropriateness" even if Tiger was white! That comment reveals in some way "a frustration that you can't controll" and "that you're getting tired to live with"! I see in that statement Mrs. Tilghman's "feelings"! We human beings lose some "rationality" when we're expressing ourselves! (In this case, she forgot where she was)
Greetings from Asia!