Kelly Lynched A Tiger

Kelly Tilghman’s off the cuff statement “Lynch him in a back alley” has been described as “a poorly-chosen remark” by the Golf Channel. Mike Cellzic’s blog: Open Mike on MSNBC.com calls it “an innocent verbal slip” and goes on to attack Al Sharpton for using the misogynistic term “this woman”.

Cellzic further explains that lynching is not automatically associated as a racist term and, for much of his life, thought lynching was what they did in the old West to cattle and horse rustlers. He had no clue it had racial connotations until later in life. Using Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s The Ox-Bow Incident as his moral compass he suggest every American, including Sharpton should read it because it’s all about lynching with “not a scrap of racism”.

If you read the book you would know that it is about many things: judgment, prejudice, hatred and testosterone laden anger. All of which are prime ingredients of racism. The three lynched men: Donald Martin, an amalgam of English Irish decent. Juan Moriz, a Mexican and Hardwick an old deranged man were all certainly subjected to the racism of 1885.

Another problem with Cellzic’s logic is the hugh difference between lynching and hanging. Lynching is the illegal execution of an accused person by a mob. Hanging is the legal execution of a person convicted and condemned by a state or federal court. Horse and cattle rustlers were hanged for their crimes after being convicted in a court. While there were certainly those who were hanged by a rancher and his ranch hands, this is a far cry from the lynchings committed in the Deep South. With the exception of the Ox-Bow Incident most references in Westerns are to the legal hanging of rustlers.

Between 1882 and 1930 there were 2805 documented victims of lynching in 2,018 separate incidents. Of those lynched 2462 were African-American of which 2314 were at the hands of white lynch mobs. The lynchings included men, women and children and averaged one per week for five decades. The catalyst for the lynchings ranged from scaring a white woman to murder. None were with the benefit of a legal trial. Source: Stewart E. Tolnay and E.M. Beck, A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930.

I am a 55 year old white man named after Dana Andrews who played Donald Martin one of the three men lynched in the Ox-Bow Incident movie and for me there is no gray area here, lynching is purely a racist term.

Kelly Tilghman’s words were racist and it is certain that she would not have used the term “lynch” had she been speaking about a dominating white golfer. Only because she had a prior relationship with Tiger was Kelly given a pass on her racism.

Racism is so deeply rooted in our vernacular that we use it subconsciously in appropriate context. It is only when brought to our attention that we recognize it for what it truly is, racism. Kelly’s “poorly-chosen remark” was actually what she meant to say although I’m certain that she didn’t mean it to be hurtful. However “Lynching in a back alley” is a statement that would only be said about an African-American man. It’s our history and we all know it . Kelly knows it. Tiger knows it. Cellzic knows it. Al Sharpton knows it.

The Golf Channel also knows it. They got it right with the two week suspension and their statement "There is simply no place on our network for offensive language like this. While we believe that Kelly's choice of words were inadvertent and that she did not intend them in an offensive manner, the words were hurtful and grossly inappropriate." I applaud them for their courage and appropriate response. Somebody there gets it.