Unintentional Words - Kent Ninomiya
Kent Ninomiya - Should someone lose their job and career for saying the wrong thing? Is it right that years of unblemished service be wiped out by a single off hand comment? The answer is... it depends. Last Friday, Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman said young pro golfers trying to catch up to Tiger Woods should "lynch him in a back alley." Naturally this comment sparked outrage since Tiger Woods is part African American. The anger further intensified as Tilghman was allowed to appear on the air all day Saturday as if nothing happened. She issued an on-air apology Sunday and said he apologized directly to Tiger Woods, however she remained on the air that day. The Golf Channel issued a statement saying "we regret if any viewers were offended by Kelly's choice of words."
Tiger Woods is apparently taking the high road and not making an issue out of it. Woods' agent is quotes as saying "It is a complete non-issue. Kelly and Tiger are friends. It might have been a poor choice of words, but there was absolutely no ill intent whatsoever."
It is entirely reasonable to assume that Tilghman did not mean to offend anyone and is not a racist. It was most likely a slip of the tongue and she did not realize the context of the word "lynch" when she said it. So then, what should be her "punishment" if anything? The Golf Channel is obviously concentrating on intent. Since she has no ill will then it's a simple matter of apologizing. The fact that their viewer base is primarily white and not overall offended by her remark anyway also limits their motivation to dole out any punishment. To some this makes the Golf Channel seem apathetic and racist. Other groups out there are horribly offended and want Tilghman's head. It doesn't matter to them that Woods himself says he's not offended and is willing to drop the matter. They want to make an example out of Tilghman as if punishing her will stop others from making slips of the tongue in the future.
I have worked in television for more than 20 years now. Many comments have passed my lips that came out differently than I intended them. When you talk for a living on live television you sometimes say stupid and inadvertently offensive things without realizing it. Is that a punishable offense? One time in San Francisco I was chatting on air with my co anchor about a man who found several stolen Oscar statues in a trash dumpster. His reward for returning them was an invitation to the Academy Awards ceremony in the next day or two. I commented that I hoped he had time to find something nice to wear since the Academy Awards are all about what people are wearing. The man happened to be African American. One viewer was greatly offended by my comment and wrote a letter accusing me of being a blatant racist. He said I claimed African Americans are too poor and stupid to dress themselves. I have quite honestly never had that thought in my life and was not thinking about the man's race at all when making the comment. I was talking about clothes. Despite this the viewer was irate. I personally expressed my regret to the viewer if my comments offended him and explained that I did not mean what he believed I did. It did not satisfy him and he continued to be angry and convinced I was a racist. Nothing I could say or do would satisfy him. He just wanted to be offended.
I have also been on the other side of misspoken words. I was hired to be a primary anchor at a television station in Minneapolis and partnered with an African American woman. The general manager who hired me was a visionary. He was willing to create an all minority main anchor team in an overwhelmingly white market. When asked about this, he said when it comes to anchors it didn't matter the color of their skin or the "slant" of their eyes. Columnists and Asian American groups around the country took it upon themselves to be offended by the "slant" comment. Some called for the general manager's firing. They didn't bother to ask me if I was offended. I wasn't. I knew this man to be honorable and brave. He took a huge risk hiring me and was in no way a racist. His words came out wrong. That's all. The story diminished what should have been a hugely positive story about the landmark all minority anchor team in Minnesota. Those who were so offended missed an opportunity to focus on a positive accomplishment by being petty and negative.
The bottom line here is that words are powerful, but they're just words. A sum of a person's character and accomplishments can not be reduced to a single inadvertent comment no matter what it is. If there's a pattern of offensive behavior or words, that's different. If it's a single off hand statement then it should be judged in the context under which it is said. Making a big deal about an innocent statement harms the movement for equality. If the mainstream sees minorities as over sensitive and unreasonable then they will ignore legitimate complaints. Likewise, the mainstream needs to understand that offensive comments do harm us all and use these incidents as opportunities to focus on removing them from our lexicon. There is work to do on both sides. Kent Ninomiya
