What seems indisputable (to everyone except that braying jackass Sharpton) is that there was NO INTENT AT ALL to say anything malicious. We’ve all said dumb things that didn’t reflect any malicious intent – should we all be fired for honest mistakes?

More importantly, what kinds of conclusions do we draw about a nation where REAL, powerful, pervasive racism continues to exist in structural ways and the elected authorities do nothing about it, but people get fired for inadvertent slips.

Is this REALLY how you beat racism?

I looked with my ‘black’ eyes and couldn’t see any inference whatsoever that you implied that the subject was being portrayed as joke. She was probably totally ignorant of how her words would be percieved.

Did I mention that white Americans were lynched when they were caught trying to free slaves? They spilled their blood; where is their credit towards our history?

Can you point to where somebody here suggested that lynching is a joke?

If not, it’s possible that you missed the point entirely.

I often find that Americans whose ancestors arrived in the late 19th and 20th centuries need to educate themselves about American history and stop minimizing the history of our country.

Please take the time to educate yourselves about why “lynching” is no damn joke: http://www.abolishthenword.com/

I’m black, and I visit this site…now, following the lead of Bonesparkle, I think you can do your part sir by changing your last name. What were your parents trying to infer by “McCracker”?

Just kidding, really.

I think she didn’t mean anything by it. I even wrote a post about another white person who used racial slurs…

http://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/larry-king-interviews-dog-the-bounty-hunter-apology-tour/

However, wether she meant it or not, the network has to worry about its image. It simply can’t afford it, no pun intended of course.

I will say as a black person that what I do like about the U.S. is that there exists the potential for us to work together. Lynching was a tragedy, right up until the last one in (2005?) But the white people aren’t going back to Europe and the black people (like myself) aren’t going back to Africa. The only people we have left to move forward with progressively is each other.

So me thinks…

The very term comes from laws that had very little to do with black people. Vigilante justice in a time when there weren’t a lot of blacks running around, much less committing crimes, was covered by Lynch laws originating in Pennsylvania. Much like slavery, which existed before the US colonists subjugated mostly people from Africa, there were slaves in “Mexico” and Asia.

Patrick:

What’s your point?

Gentleman, lady…those are the words you find objectionable? Man, how can I win there!? Ok, let’s say thoughtful human being.

I don’t see your point on bringing up the south. I’m from Alabama, I know what the south is and is not. Where did my words dumb and simple point to the south? Dumb was the word I used to describe her phraseology. Plain and simple. I really don’t have to defend that use of colloquialism, do I?

There was no intent. There was only a word taken way the fuck out of context.

By the way, I have good friends who come from the South, a place that has been historically mischaracterized as being less educated and more ignorant than the rest of the country. As such, I’m offended, on their behalf, at your elitist use of the words “dumb” and “simple.” You should be fired.

I’m also offended at your bassackwards use of patently sexist language like “lady” and “gentelman” (sic). Seriously, can’t we leave that kind of patronizing 19th Century crap out of intelligent conversation?

BTW Sam it’s snowing

This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot….

I would bet that Tilghman’s faux pas is actually a sign that she is so naive about race that it didn’t occur to her that the idea of lynching a black man could be offensive. Clearly, she’s badly educated and probably more than a bit stupid, but that’s a tragedy, not a crime.

I’ve had to do extensive research on lynching in America for a project of mine, and it has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Lynching was, and is, so terrifying to many African-Americans not simply because it meant death. Death was easy. It was being burned alive, roasted slowly over a spit, having your penis cut off and forced down your throat, having your fingers and toes cut off one by one as you screamed for mercy, and the like that made lynching terrifying beyond words or even more visceral understanding. All those things I mentioned, and more, not only happened with a lynching, but happened frequently. And then, white people stood around the mutilated and burned bodies to have their pictures taken for post cards.

But I would be shocked if this has anything to do with Tilghman.

It’s high time we started differentiating between innocent (and butt ignorant) slips, and real racism.