What Bill O'Reilly Just Learned About Black People

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted September 26, 2007.

If he weren't such a ridiculous, pathetic oaf, I'd invite Bill O'Reilly up to my 'hood for a little white-on-white bonding, re-education and diversity training -- if he weren't afraid to set foot in it!

It would obviously surprise, and perhaps even frighten the Man Who Wouldn't Shut Up, to learn that I now live in Harlem -- along with many other white people, not to mention a wide and growing assortment of Asians, Hispanics, Arabs, African Americans and all the rest of what makes Manhattan such a vibrant, interesting and exciting place to live and work.

Apparently O'Reilly, trapped back in time as well as in his suburban cocoon and Fox bunker, hasn't noticed any of the ongoing changes in Harlem -- or for that matter the rest of America -- that have taken place since he and I attended the same very Catholic, very strict and very segregated college prep school in lily-white Long Island back in the '60s.

Back then there was only one skinny little black kid in the class -- and he was regularly brutalized by the hulking football players. Given that racist background -- and given the further fact that he obviously hasn't progressed much since then -- it comes as no surprise that O'Reilly recently expressed his surprise that "there was no difference" between Sylvia's, a world-famous Harlem restaurant, and other restaurants in New York.

"I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship," the amazed talkmeister told his national audience of millions.

This latest in a depressingly long series of O'Reilly racial dustups began last week on his syndicated radio program, while he was discussing a recent dinner he had enjoyed at Sylvia's with his new pal Al Sharpton.

O'Reilly told his audience he "had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful." (For Bill, it's somehow always all about him!) He added, "I couldn't 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."

Later, while talking with Fox News contributor (and National Public Radio senior correspondent) Juan Williams, O'Reilly further exposed his cosseted ignorance, saying, "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'MF-er, I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."

Just imagine -- those crazy MF-ers in Harlem "ordering and having fun" just like they do in Italian restaurants in the "all-white" suburbs that O'Reilly STILL inhabits! What will they think of next -- donning leisure suits? (Frankly, the only crazy people I've ever heard yelling obscenities in New York restaurants were O'Reilly's Fox fellow travelers screaming for more booze in Langan's, the Irish pub they hang out in near their Sixth Avenue headquarters.)

The racist ranter then compounded his idiocy by noting, "I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They're getting away from the Sharptons and the Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They're just trying to figure it out. 'Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.'"

As noted above, this embarrassing outburst is far from the first time O'Reilly has made provocative statements about race. (See Media Matters for America for documentation.)

But here are a few past lowlights:

• During the Feb. 5 edition of Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," in a conversation about President Bush's description of Barack Obama as "articulate," O'Reilly told a Temple University professor, "Instead of black and white Americans coming together, white Americans are terrified. They're terrified. Now we can't even say you're articulate? We can't even give you guys compliments because they may be taken as condescension?"
• On the Aug. 16, 2006, edition of "The O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly called for "profiling of Muslims" at airports, arguing that detaining all "Muslims between the ages of 16 and 45" for questioning "isn't racial profiling," but "criminal profiling."
• In a Feb. 27, 2006, conversation with a caller about the disproportionately few jobs and contracts that have gone to locals in the rebuilding of New Orleans, O'Reilly said: "[T]he homies, you know ... I mean, they're just not going to get the job."

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Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor is now completing AlterNet’s first-ever book, which is on the subject of right-wing radio talkers like O’Reilly, and will be available soon. O'Connor also writes the Media Is A Plural blog.

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