Yeah, sure. You might object that neither Media Matters or CNN called O'Reilly a racist and that he seems to be protesting a bit too much that they did. But you'd be wrong ... um ... because O'Reilly has great ratings!
Bill and Juan Williams and Laura Ingraham are completely correct – you can’t have an honest discussion about race without smear merchants like Media Matters trying to shut you up and marginalize you.
Let me just say that I find this disgusting. Like Mr. O’Reilly, I think stereotypes are wrong. In fact, I’ve had a similar experience to O’Reilly going into a black restaurant not being able to:
get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship.Not too long ago I went to a black restaurant and I was amazed that the menu had stuff other than fried chicken and watermelon and grape sodas, and the deserts weren’t just moonpies. The people working there didn’t have Soul Glow afros and get this – this will astound you – I could understand what they were saying. They weren’t speaking Jive like the two black passengers in the movie Airplane. And here’s another astonishing fact – the black patrons were paying for their food with money and not food stamps. And they were talking about everyday things. You know, normal stuff and not about bitches and hoes and baby’s mommas. And as far as I can tell no one was doing crack.
Oh yeah ... I almost forgot - you won't believe this - No one robbed me! Can you believe that? I walked out of a black restaurant with my wallet intact and got into my car without being car jacked.
You know what else? I've been on a black college campus before and there were students carrying books and going to class just like at any other nonblack college. Astonishing, right? In addition, I saw nothing going on that remotely resembled the stuff happening in Yun Wun's "Tear It Up" video.
This reminds me of another time that Bill had to take on the p.c. police. It was over people thinking that saying that black public figures can speak well is an insult. I thought O’Reilly was particularly strong on that issue when he and Dennis Miller said that Chris Rock would think it’s stupid to take insult at saying a black public figure can speak well even though Chris Rock has done a bit in one of his HBO comedy specials about how ridiculous it is for anyone to think Colin Powell – a college educated man – would do anything other than speak well. What did they expect him to say, Rock wondered, “I fixin’ to drop me sum bombs.” Or something like that. But you can see how it takes the brilliance of O’Reilly to take Chris Rock who mocked the soft prejudice of saying black public figures can speak well and use him as a prop to say that saying black public figures can speak well isn’t prejudiced.
5 comments:
Nice to have a least one blogger giving a fair take on this manufactured controversy/ smear campaign. Cheers.
I suppose I wasn't sarcastic enough.
For the record, I don't think O'Reilly's comments are racist. I think they are ignorant and prejudiced and idiotic.
Even if the restaurant had been full of the "vile rappers" that O'Reilly hates so much he wouldn't have heard "M-Fer bring me some tea" because contrarcy to his cartoonish perception they aren't the demonic monsters that he thinks they are.
And to be even more specific:
O'Reilly's prejudice is based on racist stereotypes.
Only an ignorant fool would think he was saying something profound by telling "white America" that you can go in a black restaurant and have a normal dinner.
Normally I would be the last one to defend O'Reilly. I agree with everything you have written about in the past. However, Cathy Young comes to his defense (sort of) and I can see where she has a point.
http://cathyyoung.blogspot.com/2007/09/oreilly-race-factor.html
Her point is that O'Reilly was trying to contrast the reality of Black American life as compared to the media perception of Black America as fueled by the Hip Hop scene.
You know how Hip Hop/Rap is one of his favorite subjects to deplore.
Though it does come across in a racist way, I think his intent was actually to score points against Hip Hop by insinuating that Hip Hop creates the stereotypical perception he was talking about.
He was also trying to score points against the Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson types by insinuating that they focus on racial self indentification (what he calls "race-based culture") instead of self reliance. Which is not surprising since that is a Conservative meme.
I'm not aruging that there were not any racial undertones, but I don't think he is overtly racist.
I agree that only a fool would think he was saying something profound, but then again you have to consider who his audience is.
I agree with Young that O'Reilly's comments weren't racist and I've said before that I don't think O'Reilly is racist (although I do believe he has a history of making statements that reveal race based prejudices). However, I think she is a tad too generous in intepreting what he said. Whatever O'Reilly intended to say, what came out was insulting, and more importantly, stupid.
If he would simply humble himself slightly and admit that he didn't come across the way he intended to I'd be inclined to cut him more slack. But since he continues to say things like people are upset because Media Matters made up a phony/bogus quote I find it difficult to resist the urge to ridicule him.
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