Bill O’Reilly went to a concert that featured both Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire and – shades of his visit to Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem – was pleasantly surprised at how well behaved everybody was.
In his Tip of the Day segment, O’Reilly discussed the “white band, black band, together” concert.
O’Reilly played some footage of the concert. I saw only white people in the audience but I’ll take O’Reilly’s word for it that it was diverse.
O’REILLY: Now what’s interesting about the Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago alliance is that it draws an integrated crowd – about 14,000 last night. And there were absolutely no problems. Everybody got along. Everybody enjoyed the show.
Our pal, Verdine White [of Earth, Wind & Fire] set the tone and the bands did six songs together, obviously having a great time. So the concert was much more than music. It was a demonstration of what race relations can be in America.
Just like we said when O’Reilly visited Sylvia’s and he was so struck by how well-behaved the Harlem clientele was, I think Bill O’Reilly meant well and I don’t like to be unkind about his good intentions. But the fact that O’Reilly thought it remarkable that there were no problems and that everybody got along reveals a mindset at least half-expecting something else. Or what he thinks race relations usually are. And I’d be more forgiving if he were not always lecturing black people about their “grievances” with whites.
I’d love to know what it was, exactly, O’Reilly thought might have happened at the concert. Cries of “M-Fer, I want more iced tea?”
Watch O’Reilly inadvertently raise the lid (again) on his deep-seated prejudice below, from the August 15 The O’Reilly Factor.
Thx.
He said “interesting” as though that were something unusual. He also said “And there were absolutely no problems. Everybody got along.” Again—as though that were something unusual FOR A RACIALLY-MIXED CROWD.
Child, with O’Reilly, you’ve got to look for the SUBTEXT (it’s really not just O’Reilly; it’s pretty much everyone at FoxNoise). Why in the world would ANYONE make such comments UNLESS they were “surprised” at the audience’s behavior?
I’m also curious as to why you’re even here. You don’t seem to have posted anything on this site before but, for some reason, you feel it necessary to defend O’Reilly’s silly comment. Now, THAT is “sad.”
