A Bogey in Race Relations

Over fifty years ago, an African-American woman refused to sit in the back of the bus. The military had to be sent to Little Rock, Arkansas so some black students could enroll in an all-white high school. And a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. started making waves in the name of civil rights through a policy of non-violence.

In 2008, we are commemorating the birth of King with a federal holiday. Barack Obama, who is part African-American, is a U.S. Senator running for the White House. It has become commonplace for minorities to succeed in positions where they once wouldn't have been welcomed.

So why are we seeing a hateful symbol of the Jim Crow South and the Ku Klux Klan--the noose--popping up all over America? Are things so bad that we have to resort to denigrating minorities' accomplishments by bringing up their painful pasts?

The latest example of white people who just don't get it is a woman named Kelly Tilghman, an anchor for the Golf Channel. Filling time during coverage of a tournament in Hawaii, she and analyst Nick Faldo were having a seemingly lighthearted discussion about what it would take to rein in the dominance of the PGA Tour by Tiger Woods. In the middle of all that, Tilghman jokingly used the word "lynched" to describe what should be done with Woods, who is part African-American.

Had this poor attempt at humor been uttered by loose-cannon network golf commentators such as Johnny Miller, David Feherty or Gary McCord (who was banned from covering The Masters for describing the greens at Augusta National as bikini waxed), they would have been fired. The relatively obscure Golf Channel suspended Tilghman for two weeks, for which she should consider herself lucky.

Tilghman apologized not only on the air, but also to Woods, whom she considers a friend. Woods accepted, saying it was no big deal. Really? Friends don't let friends say stupid things and expect to get away with it. (May we suggest an appearance on Don Imus' radio program for Ms. Tilghman?)

Since then, Golfweek magazine weighed in on the controversy by putting a noose on its cover. After Tim Finchem, the head of the PGA Tour, complained, the editor who had that bright idea got fired.

The rise of Woods as the most dominating figure in golf in the last decade is without question. But it has yet to lead to an increase in African-American golfers trying their luck in an otherwise lily-white sport. So far, the number of black golfers who have followed Woods onto the PGA Tour can be done with one hand.

Woods has described himself as a 'cablinasian', a mixed bag of races resulting from being the sole offspring of an African-American father and a Thai mother. He is married to a Swedish woman, and the couple just recently added a daughter. He might think that, just because he's rich and famous, he should be above racial prejudice. One look at him, and you wish that were true.

Oh, by the way, Woods competes in his first tournament of the year this weekend at the Buick Invitational near San Diego. And Tilghman will be there to cover it.

We have taken a few steps toward the society King dreamed about back in 1963, but the journey is by no means complete. As long as ignorant people inhabit the earth, the goal will always be a little further down the road.