In case there’s any doubt whatsoever about Bill O’Reilly’s utter disdain and dislike of the African American community, then take a look at the nearly eight minutes of ranting, condescension and hostility that made up his Talking Points segment tonight. O’Reilly didn’t just join his Fox colleagues in using the upset feelings in the African American community as an opportunity to attack them, he took it a step further by suggesting that President Obama is deliberately enabling African American ills by pandering to them. Because, apparently, O’Reilly believes he has fooled at least some people into thinking that his hate-filled rant was an effort of tough love and a gesture of concern, instead of, say, pandering to his (predominantly) white viewers' worst prejudices.
O’Reilly’s hostility started early:
Many black Americans harbor at least some resentment for past injury.
Then O’Reilly tacked into a feint of balance and even-handedness:
Talking Points believes the president was correct in addressing the race issue and framing it with the Trayvon Martin case.
Having established his “fair-minded” bona fides, at least in his own mind, O’Reilly then let his rancor rip:
The sad truth is that, from the president on down, our leadership has no clue, no clue at all, about how to solve problems within the black community. And many are frightened to even broach the issue. That’s because race hustlers and the grievance industry have intimidated the so-called conversation, turning any valid criticism of African-American culture into charges of racial bias.
Shorter O’Reilly: It’s black people’s fault we can’t talk about race the way I think we should.
So many in power simply walk away leaving millions of law-abiding African Americans to pretty much fend for themselves in violent neighborhoods. You want racism? That’s racism!
Yeah, Bill, I’m sure you’ve won over hearts and minds of African Americans across the nation with this touching interest in their welfare.
It was wrong for Zimmerman to confront Martin based on his appearance. But the culture that we have in this country does lead to criminal profiling because young black American men are so often involved in crime. The statistics – overwhelming!
But here’s the headline: Young black men commit homicides at a rate 10 times greater than whites and Hispanics combined. Presented with damning evidence like that, and like the many Holocausts in Chicago, where hundreds of African Americans are murdered each year, the civil rights industry looks the other way or makes excuses.
O’Reilly’s voice began dripping with disdain:
They blame guns, poor education, lack of jobs. Rarely do they define the problem accurately. So here it is: The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration of the African American family. Right now, about 73% of all black babies are born out of wedlock. That drives poverty and the lack of involved fathers leads to young boys crowing up resentful and unsupervised. When was the last time you saw a public service ad telling young black girls to avoid becoming pregnant? Has President Obama done such an ad?
I don’t know about PSA’s, but had O’Reilly bothered to research the topic before bloviating, he would have found that President Obama has something called the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. And there’s that mandatory contraception coverage in Obamacare that O’Reilly didn’t just disagree with but maliciously mocked as some kind of call to licentiousness. And if it’s PSA’s Bill wants, there are plenty to be found with a simple Google search, including one from a group called, the Center for Black Women’s Wellness and another by the Chicago Department of Public Health.
If O’Reilly thinks that the only solution is President Obama standing in front of a camera and lecturing black teens not to have premarital sex – well, good luck with that.
But O’Reilly’s behavior suggests he’s far more interested in maligning African Americans than in helping them to avoid teen pregnancies or any other troubles. Rather than reporting on any real programs that work or the causes of teen pregnancies (other than throwing out not-so-subtle hints that it’s something lacking in their character), O’Reilly kept making it about demonizing Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, President Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus. I’m sure that spoke to the black community – but almost certainly not in the way O’Reilly purported to want.
“How about Jackson or Sharpton?” O’Reilly thundered self-righteously, thereby ignoring how Jackson has long spoken out against drug use and teen pregnancy. But O’Reilly wasn’t done with his scapegoating. “Has the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an ad like that? How about the PC pundits who work for NBC News? White people don’t force black people to have babies out of wedlock. That’s a personal decision. A decision that has devastated millions of children and led to disaster both socially and economically."
Oh, yeah, he went after the entertainment industry, too.
So, raised without much structure, young black men often reject education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that. Again, it is a personal decision. But the entertainment encourages the irresponsibility by marketing a gangsta culture, hip-hop moves, trashy TV shows to impressionable children. In fact, President Obama has welcomed some of the worst offenders in that cesspool to the White House when he should be condemning what these weasels are doing.
…What do the race hustlers and limousine liberals yell about? The number of black men in prison for selling drugs. (O’Reilly started yelling now) Oh, it’s so unfair! It’s a non-violent crime. And blacks are targeted! (He started jabbing his finger) That is one of the biggest lies in the history of this country!
O’Reilly concluded this with his prescription for African Americans, sans any actual facts or reporting to back up his pronouncements from his podium of white privilege:
The solution to the epidemic of violent crime in poor, black neighborhoods is to actively discourage pregnancies out of marriage, to impose strict discipline in the public schools, including mandatory student uniforms, and to create a zero tolerance policy for gun and drug crimes imposing harsh mandatory prison time on the offenders.
…It is now time for the African American leadership, including President Obama, to stop the nonsense. Walk away from the world of victimization and grievance. And lead the way out of this mess.
As I have previously said about other Fox News attempts to use the killing of Trayvon Martin as an excuse to smear the African American community, it is not just tone deaf, it’s deliberately mean spirited and hateful. And yes, bigoted.
“Why don’t we invest at the root of the problem by providing needed funding for our schools? This would include all. While those opposed will scream about the cost, these same screamers don’t utter a peep about cost when it comes to military buildup and spending.”
Especially when these screaming rightwing PFCs (Privileged Fascist Chickenhawks) aren’t the ones getting shot at, crippled, maimed or KILLED.
’Nuff said.
What kind of role model is Obama anyway?! Does he measure up to Newt KingGrinch? Or Kkkarl Rove?!! Or KKKlannity?!! Or ME – known sexual harasser, cop briber, white supremist and all round woman hater?!!! I ask you …
So in closing I want to say, what black kid would want to become POTUS when you have someone like Obama there?!!! I mean Reeeeeeeeely!!!!
No, I take that back- “Playing with fire” is putting it waaay too lightly. Considering the black mark their views are leaving on every level of their agenda, they’re not only destroying themselves for 2014… But they’re inviting themselves to be among the first victims of violence if they get the race war they’re clearing provoking.
They’re not playing with fire- They’re sitting in a mound of magnesium, coated in Kerosine, desperately trying to strike a match.
You forgot Rush Jobba Hutt Fat Ass Limbaugh
And those who take personal responsibility, republicans say “no Planned Parenthood, no contraception, no abortions, no to sex education and more unwanted babies will wind up in jail or on Social Services. . Oh happy days!. Every January, here you come into town from your little squeaky clean suburbs where your only problem is where to eat, McDonald or Pizza Hut, and protest and feel good about yourself and go home. Meanwhile, there are folks living in hellish conditions you cannot imagine and yes they get pregnant. You say, keep the baby no matter what!! Never mind the baby is unwanted, unloved, abused, and have little chance of the quality life you are so accustomed. Never mind that child’s mother is a crackhead and/or homeless, keep that baby because I said so!! Maybe you and your pro-life folks should take all these unwanted babies and raise them yourselves. What puzzles me is you want them to be born and then they say screw them! You are on your own and then you complain about spending your precious taxes paying for welfare and food stamps and social services.
Like I said, its all about pandering to their base. Terrorist like Bill O’Reilly, played the role of victim in the murder of Dr. George Tiller. It’s accurate to say O’Reilly bears some responsibility for the doctor’s death. He might as well have pulled the trigger. Bill obviously aborted the "facts”. Murder is defined: The UNLAWFUL killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.
He kept calling him a murderer and he has blood on his hands and for 5,000 dollars you can just waltz into his office and have your baby murdered.
“<strong>They blame guns, poor education, lack of jobs</strong>. Rarely do they define the problem accurately. So here it is: The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is <strong>the disintegration of the African American family</strong>.”
Yes, without jobs and with limited access to education—due in part to the historical segregation and redlining of black communities so that blacks could not follow their white peers to the suburbs (and buy houses) where the jobs were being located. Lacking access to jobs (or costly access) due either to discrimination or geographic segregation, and being redlined out of homeownership, many blacks were left in the urban core, with poor schools because they were unable to buy houses in which to build wealth and provide property taxes that are allocated to schools.
Now, imagine several decades of being stuck in a community with sustained unemployment, poverty, and poor education—having almost no financial stability—and tell me that its easy to raise and support a family. Tell me you have time and money to participate in those soft social institutions that provide so much community support like little league sports, the PTA, community organizations and social clubs.
Tell me that, when these social institutions collapse due to widespread lack of financial stability, health, and education, that the culture doesn’t become bitter. That the values of the community and the soft social structures that enforce them don’t weaken or become misguided. That you aren’t affected by the only world you know, the only people you know, and the only culture you know—the poverty/“ghetto” culture that has developed. Tell me that, after your parents and friends have suffered long term unemployment, you still have the confidence to find a job—that someone wants to hire you.
While I understand the importance of having a strong military and providing the necessary equipment for the troops, having a strong education system is also equally vital to our future. The problem then is any proposal the President would make would be rejected by the Republican congress, not because it’s not needed but because he’s for it and the Tea Party types will have a temper tantrum. When it comes to violence, no matter the color, again we saw what happen with just a simple background check for those who purchase a gun at gun show and the power of the gun manufactures who don’t care about rights, but profits.
“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. There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’”
1960s. They are like a restricted country club that would rather die than
change; the Republican Party is marginalizing itself for the sake of the white men
who run it.
And you wonder why we have these baggy pants, dreadlocks tattooed, chain wearing modern fools walking about in gangs. As for those guns. Where do you think they get them? Crime Pays. Let’s face it. The underclass is doomed. Data revealed a significant link between income and out-of-wedlock births. Of women making less than $10,000 who gave birth in the previous year, 68.9 percent were not married. That statistic dropped progressively going up the household income ladder, with a 9 percent rate for households earning more than $200,000 a year.
It wasn’t Black folks who changed the laws regarding public assistance that mandated penalties if there was a man in the household. This may have something to do with one of the problems for which Loofah Lad is blaming Black folks.
With all my love,
Uncle Em
Truth be told: I don’t usually watch Loofah Lad’s screeds. So, does the Falafel King usually take this much time on his Talking Points? It seemed extra long to me. It must be a topic close to his heart. Not only was it long, but he was practically spitting with anger during parts of it.
It also seemed to be a very long time for a mainstream, prime time tee vee personality, who can’t see beyond his own White Privilege, to go on racist rant. Don’t believe me? Listen to how Loofah Lad describes the Black community: “they” and “them” and “those.” Just word choice is dehumanizing, but listen to the tone of voice during those sections. His voice drips with disdain.
And then there’s the actual arc of the actual editorial. He starts by criticizing President Obama’s remarks, but then, when he gets rolling, the blame game REALLY starts. “Black people are responsible for all their own problems” is Bloviating Bill’s bottom line. All the community needs to do is pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and emulate White folk, who’ve got it all together.
Bill O’Reilly is unthinking White Privilege personified.
On a personal note, I’m from Detroit. Loofah lad blamed all of Detroit’s problems on drugs. That’s not only racist, but it’s just so wrong. To blame Detroit’s troubles on any one single thing is absurd. Detroit’s problems are myriad and drugs is the least of them. Other cities have drug problems and haven’t become Detroit.
Declaring bankruptcy is the culmination of almost 3 centuries of systemic racism. I make that point in my latest blog post:
Another Dispatch From Detroit, ’Merka’s First Throwaway City
http://notnowsilly.blogspot.com/2013/07/another-dispatch-from-detroit-merkas.html
With all my love,
Aunty Headly
Listen. The truth stings. But actions have consequences. Glorify thuggery? Kids will emulate. Offer apologies for children having children? The behavior will continue. Refuse to hold individuals accountable for their own violent actions? Those actions will go on.
I for one believe in the black community. I know that if their leaders looked to the message of self reliance that MLK and others championed, we’d see real progress. I don’t think blacks need a special set of help because I see us all as equals. We’ve tried 60 years of the liberal way. It has been a mistake. Lets own up to it and move on.
