Bill O'Reilly Suggests He Could Possibly Lead a "Lynching Party" on Michelle Obama

Posted by William K. Wolfrum, Shakesville at 2:10 PM on February 20, 2008.

Highlighting the differences between golf announcer Kelly Tilghman's use of the word lynch and Bill O'Reilly's use of the word "lynching" in a post I penned for WorldGolf.com, I was struck by something that I didn't include there but wanted to mention here.

Why is it that political entertainers such as O'Reilly, Coulter, Savage, Limbaugh and Beck strut about so cockily, advertising themselves as people who fearlessly "tell it like it is," but they all recoil and flee like frightened bunnies if they're called racist?

Here's the word "Racist," as defined by Merriam-Webster:

1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2: racial prejudice or discrimination.

Why is being called a racist something that they deem offensive, when by definition, they are in fact racist? Are they so cowardly that they cannot accept the public scorn that comes along with being self-identified racists? Is lying about yourself a better quality?

Racists are scorned by society and will continue to be. The world would be a better place without those that blame their own weakness on someone with a different skin pigmentation, or someone who was born in a different part of the world. If, if not when, humans finally make this planet uninhabitable for humans, racism will have played a big roll in how it all went wrong.

But if you're going to make your actual career promoting racism, why hide from it? Embrace it. How can you rail against how political correctness is destroying society when you're unwilling to fight it yourselves? There are enough racists out there that will gladly follow Bill O'Reilly, et al, to the depths of hell, blaming African-Americans, Mexicans, Asians, Middle Easterners, etc., all the way down. So enough with making repeated racist statements while acting shocked that people would call you racist. It's time the right-wing hate commentators stood up and embraced the mantle of racist.

Because, really, as if being a racist isn't bad enough, being a cowardly, delusional racist is even worse.

And for a look at what I had to say earlier today on the subject of how Kelly Tilghman was suspended and had to apologize for her brutally bad joke about lynching Tiger Woods, while Bill O'Reilly won't get as much as a hand slap for talking about joining a lynching party for Michelle Obama, click here.

William K. Wolfrum is a regular blogger for Shakesville