Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Why hasn't she been Imused??

OK...so we all know who Don Imus is and what happened to him. For those of you living in caves and bomb shelters, the one time and still popular radio talk show host referred to a women's university basketball team as a bunch of "nappy headed hoes." Did he mean that he thought the girls all had bad hair and sold their bodies for sex every night? Certainly not, but it was a highly inappropriate remark for ANYONE of either sex or any color to make. As a result, a huge hullabaloo resulted. (If you want details, Google it.) So now we learn that last Friday a white female broadcaster for the Golf Channel (viewership 75mil. U.S.) named Kelly Tilghman suggested that young golfers should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley." EXCUSE ME?? Now I have not seen the footage and could only guess at the context of this quote. My point is that it JUST DOESN'T MATTER! She didn't say they should take him out or get rid of him or even kill him. She said they should LYNCH him. Anyone over the age of...say 10, knows that lynching is a method of killing uniquely associated with black Americans. To suggest anyone should "lynch" Tiger Woods (who is part black) is about Imus times a million. Imus' remark was to me nothing more than a poor choice of words. Tilghmans remark? Beyond reprehensible. So, why has there not been a national flap over this yet?
I have a few ideas, none of them provable. First, we can conclude that being this was on the Golf channel, no one was really listening. That is not to say that people who might watch the Golf channel are a bunch of racists who wouldn't care about the remark. But they are probably more interested in leaderboards and handicaps.
My next thought is that maybe we are learning to ignore these things in the sense that making a headline out of it will not let it just fade into the background where it will eventually disappear. Plastering it on every TV set from coast to coast just magnifies everything about this type of thing. I think that is the wrong approach which is why I also think the VMA killer's taped message should have never seen the light of day. With continuous rebroadcasting we keep brining it back to life every hour on the hour.
Another thought is that perhaps Al Sharpton and his ilk just had it out for Don Imus and were waiting for any excuse to vilify him. Maybe they just don't want to trash on sweet little Kelly whereas trashing ugly ol' Don was "fun." Afterall, she did apologize on air (albeit two days later) and has reportedly tried to contact Woods' 'people' to arrange a personal apology. (I hope they tell her to 'pack sand.')
If I were running the Golf Channel, and I'm not, I would be looking for a new commentator. A slip of the tongue is one thing. This is waaay overboard. A quick search of the Golf Channel website revealed nothing about this incident which means they just want to quickly put it behind them. As long as she works there, I don't see that happening. This girl should be looking for a new job. A poor choice of words is one thing. This was quite another.

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