I’ve already discussed Mr. Snipes, and to a degree Senator Obama. So I will start with DR. Martin Luther King. Since the death of Dr. King 2 days before I was born, there have been calls for a way to commemorate his life and life goal of racial equality in America. In 1986, after years of fights against the idea Dr. King became the first and only African American to have a federal holiday. Of course unlike most Federal holidays, virtually everyone has to work on this day, and it replaced an already existing holiday in 27 states (which helped get the day passed into law). Sadly more people enjoy a day off on Columbus Day than this one.
For those that are not old enough to realize it, one of the major reasons that there is a holiday today is because for over a decade the day before Election Day was a day that a majority of African Americans would take off. Kids did not go to school, nothing was bought in stores (big ticket items), adults were always sick. It was a social outcry that is unmatched today. And even with that statement, it took 18 years for many states to finally accept the day, though many ignored the holiday completely. All this in just my lifetime to date.
My point is that such willful ignorance of racial imbalance, and disrespect of an honorable and courageous man does not go away in a handful of years. It has gotten better, but to believe it is gone is ignorant and foolish in my opinion.
Which brings me to the comments against Tiger Woods. As some are aware during the recent Mercedes-Benz Championship tournament Kelly Tilghman, an announcer for the Golf Channel, suggested that Tiger Woods be lynched. The conversation surrounding that comment was in terms of what could be done by up-coming players to take on Tiger. One announcer suggested they gang up on Tiger, to which Ms. Tilghman stated
“Lynch him in a back alley”
Not knock him out. Not tie him down. She stated calmly, kill him in a brutal and public manner because he is Black (no matter how Tiger describes his racial history) on national cable programming. No matter how it may be excused, or what she wanted to convey, that is what she said.
The definition of lynching is –
“Any act of violence inflicted by the assemblage of two or more persons, without color or authority of law, for the premeditated purpose and with the premeditated intent of committing an act of violence upon the person of another which results in the death of the person.”
Concluded in part 2...
1 comment:
This is a response to a comment made by OG. The original comment can be found at Black & White Blog where I am a co-author and this post also appeared.
OG,
First I want to thank you for your response.
While I share your disappointment over the lack of response by Tiger Woods I do understand part of the reasoning. I don’t agree with it but I understand it. As a businessman, Tiger felt that taking on the issue would impede his status in golf and thus interfere with his ability to create and fund programs that target young people of color. I believe that he could have been forceful in his comments and still maintained his stature.
But the grander issue is that the major media was allowed to passingly review this event. That was possible because so many are willing to say, ‘it’s not meant like that’. That so many are willing and actively excuse the obvious and direct racial insults made in their face.
Change cannot happen if we sit back and excuse the slap in our face. If we allow our children to accept comments and actions that their parents and grand-parents would never let pass. A mere 43 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and so many other individuals and groups endured fire hoses, police dogs, beatings, and murder to change the perception that people of color are in any way unequal to anyone else. Today we see a passive and persistent slide back into the patterns that existed before the Civil Rights Movement.
And it’s not the fault of the school system, which we all know is inadequate. The history of Blacks was about 1 paragraph when I was in school over 30 years ago, and increased to about a page when my youngest sister was in school about 15 years ago. But I would ask this of all the readers here, what books did you give your kids about Black History?
OG, you mention that your first book was Before The Mayflower, what was your 24 year old son’s first book? What might you imagine was Tiger’s? I’m not pointing a finger, I’m asking a question of us all. What are we in this generation doing to preserve our history, and what are we doing to confront the slide back to a time when African Americans were considered negroes and 2nd class?
That was the opportunity that was missed in this Tilghman/Woods commentary. That needed to be addressed, and confronted. Because just remembering the 1968 Olympics is not enough. Ask most 20-something’s and they have no idea what happened in the ’68 Olympics. We need to share that, and remind them that casually calling for a lynching is the first step to having a lynching.
Tiger was wrong, and so was the media. But perhaps worse was the fact that so few spoke about this and said anything.
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