You know, Charles Barkley might own the planet's worst golf swing, but he's a pretty bright dude. Via Michael Wilbon's Sunday column, Barkley comments on the whole Kelly Tilghman-Golfweek fiasco:
"I don't want to hear that the golf industry's biggest problem is something Kelly Tilghman said. If Golfweek really wanted to examine racism, as the editor said he did, they would look at golf and country clubs excluding Jews and black folks. . . . Look at their restrictive policies and explain why the only black folks you see at most clubs are working in the kitchen . . . just like it was 100 years ago."As Wilbon notes, Barkley, like Tiger Woods, is friends with Tilghman. Regardless, I think his point stands: although Tilghman's comments were offensive, Golfweek "examining the issue of race" by featuring a noose on the cover of its most recent issue only made things worse.
And after a swift and severe public backlash, that probably explains why Dave Seanor, the Golfweek editor responsible for the cover, was canned. And not only that, but the president of the company that publishes the magazine offered an apology on the Golfweek website:
We're sorry. We made a grievous error. The graphic image of a noose in the Jan. 19 issue of Golfweek offended our readers, customers, advertisers and people who'd never previously heard of our magazine. For that, we sincerely apologize.Neither Tilghman's punishment or Seanor's dismissal changes race relations in this country. It draws attention to the problem, though, and although it's initially painful, ultimately, maybe some good will come of it.
