The reporter from Diversity Inc. called me for an African American perspective on the Tiger Woods incident. In a badly mangled attempt at a compliment, golf commentator Kelly Tilghman opined that if the golfing fraternity wanted to catch Tiger they would have to lynch him in a back alley. Did I think that, in the wake of Jena, Tiger Woods should have taken offense?
“As a white guy, it’s hard for me to speak from the African American perspective,” I replied. “Do you still want to hear what I have to say?”
The reporter assured me that he was all ears.
Tiger was right to accept Ms. Tighman’s apology and move on, I said. In fact, had it not been for Jena, I doubt anyone would have noticed the insensitive remark.
The nooses in Jena were dangerous because they were aimed at low-status black athletes. The threat of a literal lynching was miniscule; Mychal Bell and company had little to fear from the noose hangers. But the white perpetrators knew that, as subsequent events made clear, the full weight of local authority was on their side. The very real threat of a legal lynching gave the Jena nooses a sinister aspect that few white Americans fully appreciate.
The “hang the Jena 6 crowd” (and their name is legion) don’t realize that our criminal justice system is skewed in favor of the prosperous and the powerful; Jena 6 supporters understand this all too well.
The “lynch Tiger” comment was tacky and insensitive, especially in a post-Jena context. An apology was appropriate.
But Mr. Wood’s gracious acceptance of the apology was also fitting. The offensive remark came from an old friend who genuinely admires Tiger’s prowess.
References to lynching, verbal or physical, might offend a man like Tiger Woods, but he has no reason to find them personally threatening. Charged with a serious crime, Woods would enjoy public sympathy and the charges would be dropped unless the state had all its ducks in a row.
You don’t believe me? Consider the case of David Medina, a Texas Supreme Court Judge indicted this week by a grand jury. The Medina’s $500,000 home was destroyed by fire in June of last year. The conflagration spread to neighboring houses, causing a total of $900.000 damage. The Fire Marshall called it arson after evidence of an accelerant was discovered at the scene. Moreover, the Medina’s were deeply in dept and the mortgage company was threatening to foreclose after several payments were missed.
It’s hardly surprising that a grand jury decided to indict. Neither is it surprising that Houston District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal immediately dropped the charges. David Medina was a Supremem Court Judge, an appointee of Texas Governor Rick Perry.
It is often said that America has a two-tier legal system: one tier for low-status folks like the Jena 6 (95% of American inmates fall into this category); and a second tier for high-status people like the Duke Lacrosse boys, children of privilige who run afoul of the law only in extraordinary circumstances no matter how egregious their behavior.
I would suggest a third tier reserved for Enron executives, celebrities like Tiger Woods, and the circle surrounding prominent politicians like Rick Perry. Members of this Brahmin caste can be convicted, but the state must move heaven and earth to do it. Generally, as in Mr. Medina’s case, it’s just not worth it.
Our goal in Jena was to give the Jena 6 equal justice under law–nothing more; nothing less. Folks like Tiger Woods and David Medina have little to fear from the criminal justice system; kids like Robert Bailey and Mychal Bell aren’t so fortunate.
Friends of Justice 
What I have noticed is that for a politician or probably more significantly, a public servant right down to the municipal level of those such as employees of health departments, to be reprimanded or fired ( especially for those at higher paid status), no amount of complaint from within will do anything. It seems that it takes public humiliation and embarrassment for action to be taken. Its an example then of the system being more concerned about itself in the public’s eye (window dressing )rather than operating as a functional system, with integrity.
Such is a symptom of addiction as per the excellent tome by Anne Wilson Schaef, When Society Becomes an Addict, Harper And Row, 1986.
Very true, Robert. It is sometimes suggested that the situation in Jena, for instance, could have been handled quietly, working from within the system. This is naive. Nothing short of public scrutiny and the embarrassment this often entails can catch the attention of the powerful.
Off the main topic, but DA Chuck Rosenthal is in hot water politically and ethically over other events (and perhaps the Medina event as well). If the insurance company finds there was fraud and arson, Medina will still have to answer financially. And possibly criminally if Rosenthal dropped the case “without prejudice.” Not quite sure how double jeopardy would fit in here.
PS: Few would wish to contest Alan’s point that the “privileged” have an easier time in the CJ system. One of the Duke accused has acknowledged as much. He would have been out of luck if his parents had not been able to pony up big bucks for his defense.
I am pretty sure African Americans or at least I would still have been affronted by the lynching comment, but it sure seems that Kelly Tilghman should have known better. At least because of Jena. It isn’t a flippant remark to make about lynching someone. To see nooses or to hear threats of lynching always make my insides clench with fear and I doubt I am alone.
I think you have put your finger on the problem, webmommy! Your insides clench with fear when you see the noose–few white people have that reaction. Putting the noose on the cover of a magazine was far more insensitive than a dumb off-the-cuff comment. No one who understood how that image makes most black people feel inside would have exploited it in that fashion.