Tiger Woods lynching comments

[mheisig]

Originally Posted by DynamiteRave

Well I am Black and I find it offensive but not to the point of where she should lose her job, but ONLY for the fact that they were friends prior to this incident which leads me to believe that she probably didn't mean it in the way that everyone is thinking she did. It'd be different if she was just some random woman and she didn't know him and was saying "lynch him". She's known the guy for 12 years! This was no personal attack or no racist comment, I think she meant "string him up" and what came out was lynch. Whoops!

She called the guy up and apologized to him and Woods released a statement saying that he didn't really care about what she said. And that should be it. There shouldn't be a huge uproar about it. As long as she goes to him and apologizes and he accepts it or shrugs it off and says "whatever we're still cool" that should be THE END. Theres no point in dragging this out and making some big social controversy out of it.

But do you take offense to it from a racial standpoint or from the standpoint that it's basically an absurdly violent image to communicate a message about golf?

If, and I'm saying if the instant reaction (as it appears in Sharpton's case) is to assume it's racially motivated and respond as such, it seems a bit "unfair" to the untold numbers of people of some color other than black who have undoubtedly been the victims of lynch mobs. Blacks simply are not the only people to have been victimized at the hands of lynch mobs or cruelly enslaved or discriminated against. That doesn't denigrate any of the suffering, but I think a broader historical perspective can be very helpful.

I guess to me it'd be more equitable to take offense (if offense has to be taken in the first place) because it's violent in general for no apparent purpose, rather than because it may or may not be racially motivated.

To me I rank the woman's comments as a poorly worded attempt at humor and a backhanded compliment. It would be along the lines me complaining that my wife is bugging me to take out the trash and a friend suggesting that I take her out back and beat her. Yeah, it wasn't meant seriously and no offense was intended, but it was in poor taste and could've been worded better. It's offensive and poorly thought out, but at what point do you just let it roll off your back?

To me it's hardly worth being fired over and having Al Sharpton release the legal hounds.