Brit Hume visited The O’Reilly Factor for a little more race baiting under cover of “truth telling” about all the perks President Obama has as a black president that he doesn’t appreciate, another dose of amnesia about all the race baiting that Fox News has engaged in and – oh, yeah – an insinuation that the only real race baiters in politics are black.
O’Reilly has been on a big racial kick lately. Apparently, whitesplaining to black people that they should just shut up about racial inequality is a big part of the job of looking out for you. Now his Fox News colleagues seem to be following suit.
As I wrote about Hume’s appearance on Fox News Sunday this weekend, Hume echoed O’Reilly when he complained about Attorney General Eric Holder suggesting that some of the political attacks on him have been based on race:
And this strikes me as kind of crybaby stuff from Holder. My sense about this is that both Eric Holder and Barack Obama have benefited politically enormously from the fact that they are African-American and the first to hold the jobs that they hold.
…(T)o those two men, race has been both a shield and a sword that they have used effectively to defend themselves and to attack others. And I think it is depressing at this stage in our national life after all we’ve been through on this issue and given the overwhelming consensus on the issue of civil rights that this kind of stuff is still going on.
O’Reilly apparently liked the comments so much, he invited Hume to expand on them on The O’Reilly Factor. Hume did so and more.
First, O’Reilly opined that “If Barack Obama had been a young, white senator from Illinois, I think that, probably, Hillary Clinton would have defeated him. Is that unfair to say?”
Hume replied:
Yeah, I agree with you. But let me just put it this way. I think that given the aspirations in this country of the overwhelming majority of Americans, that the African Americans should rise in our society, become a fuller part of our society and be treated equally, enhanced his prospects. And here was a man that first of all they liked, who was an appealing person, who seemed to be non-divisive, not a race hustler in any way and they were proud of him, proud to see him elected, and therefore he has gotten, I think perhaps more than he would were he a white man, the benefit of the doubt from a great many people.
O’Reilly went on to opine that “the grievance industry” is “trotting out” race to “make it a huge issue” and obscure the economy, foreign policy and other issues the Democrats don’t want to discuss in the upcoming midterms.
Hume agreed again. “It may have the effect of stirring the base and it may also cow opponents.” Hume continued by saying that, thanks to the civil rights movement, most Americans agree “blacks and other minorities should be treated equally in this country” and “want to see blacks get ahead.” Therefore, he added, “being called a racist or labeled a racist, particularly if it’s successful, is one of the worst things that can happen to you in America. So it places a real weapon in the hands of those who would use it, particularly those who would use it unscrupulously, which I think we see in the cases of some.”
I think it speaks volumes that Hume thinks “unscrupulous” use of race is a real problem. But it’s also just as revealing that he seems to have missed – or deliberately ignored – all the race baiting against Obama and Holder that has gone on under his own nose at Fox News.
For example, there was the famous accusation by Glenn Beck that Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Not only did that not get Beck fired, it didn’t stop him from getting an extra gig touring with O’Reilly. There were also the prolonged – and bogus – accusations of Hume’s gal pal, Megyn Kelly, that Holder decided not to prosecute some African American thugs on voter intimidation charges (even though no voter intimidation evidence existed) because of racial preferences. And, as I recently wrote in another post: How about Fox’s phony-baloney birther “controversy?” How about Fox Nation’s Hip Hop BBQ? “Just asking” if the Obamas’ dap was a “terrorist fist jab?” Hosts’ “White Hizzy” jokes? Those are just some of the most famous instances of race baiting against Obama that regularly occur on Fox.
I’m not sure which would be worse: Hume forgetting about those occurrences or not noticing them in the first place.
Laughably, Hume concluded that if conservatives were “truly racist, then they would have no use for Clarence Thomas.”
I'm sure some of their best friends are black, too.
Video below via Media Matters.
…(T)o this woman, gender has been both a shield and a sword that she has used effectively to defend herself and to attack others."
As far as BOR’s part in this, ever since Obama got elected, he has been pushing the idea that Obama got elected because he is black. He pimped this train of thought on his now defunct radio show too.
What? It never occurred to BOR that Obama got the Democratic nomination over Hillary because his campaign was better organized to reach the voters and he was the more inspirational candidate who better communicated a plan that spoke to the majority of Dems? That he got elected as President (twice!) because the majority of the country actually agreed with his Democratic stance on the issues/policy? That the folks thought that Obama’s platform was a better alternative for the country than the platform that the right-wing was running on? Truth of the matter is that the GOP Presidential candidates did not offer a plan for America that the voters wanted – so the GOP candidates were rejected at the voting booths.
It’s like BOR just does not want to admit that the majority of voters simply do not share the same conservative/traditional views that he and his ilk hold. So, therefore, he (and many others on the right) tries to justify it by declaring that America’s votes must have been made based on the color of the candidates’ skin?! BOR just demeaned over half of America’s voters. How insulting!
Okay, 2 can play this game….so, using BOR’s “logic” and recalling the instances in which BOR revealed his true thoughts about Blacks by way of some rather ugly racist remarks (such as what he said about the Harlem Boys Choir, Sylvia’s, etc.), it must be safe to assume that BOR voted for McCain and Romney because they are white, hmm? Yeah, that’s it – BOR voted GOP (and, come on, we all know he did) for no other reason than the fact that their candidate has white skin. How’s that, BOR? Kinda insulting and demeaning, isn’t it?
Sorry but this meme that BOR and Hume are pushing is bogus and racist. To steal a description from Hume, it’s just a bunch of “crybaby stuff” being spewed by a couple of dinosaurs who are fearful of losing power/influence. BOR’s and Hume’s rhetoric was nothing more than a display of the “grievance industry” being operated out of FOX “news”.
As an African American, I can attest that Droopy and BillO are correct: we AA’s DO vote as a monolithic block for ALL black candidates.
Just ask Senator Alan Keyes, Governor Lynn Swann, and President Jessie Jackson . . .
.
And I say bullshit. Michael Steele, Mia Love, Bobby Jindal, and Herman Cain show just how much it’s about politics, especially in comparison to race. A white person goes off-script, they’re merely the generic “RINO” insult of the day. A minority does it, and I’m learning new racist slurs from these people.
And O’Reilly can play that “I supported the idea, but now…” line all he wants, I seem to remember him and John McCain fearmongering that Obama was a threat to white privilege during the 2008 election.
I don’t know if they are racist or not, but the evidence points to them easily being considered bigots.
So I’m just going to keep repeating that they are bigots.