Friday night, Laura Ingraham, guest hosting The O’Reilly Factor, joined her Fox News colleagues in condemning Oprah Winfrey's comments about race. Never mind that Bill O’Reilly had already devoted a Factor segment to racially policing her remarks. Friday night (8/16/13), Ingraham put on her own racial policewoman’s hat and laid down some Dos and Don’ts for how Oprah should discuss racial issues. It was the Top Story for the show.
Racial Officer Ingraham announced:
Oprah Winfrey has now injected herself into the race controversy surrounding the George Zimmerman verdict, saying this: “Emmett Till became a symbol for those times as Trayvon Martin has become a symbol for this time. A lot of people, if they think they’re not using the n-word themselves… and do not harbor ill-will towards black people (think) that it’s not racist. But, you know, to me, it’s ridiculous to look at that case and to not, not to think that race was involved.”
…To hear her in this interview, you would think that racism is still a fairly prevalent problem in the United States – while we have a black president and Oprah herself is a huge draw for white audiences.
Before ruling that Oprah had made a “sloppy analogy” between Martin and Till, Officer Ingraham also showed off her interrogation skills when she asked UCLA professor Mark Sawyer, also an African American:
Oprah Winfrey knows more than the sitting jury in the Trayvon Martin case that actually heard all of the evidence, all of the testimony that include minorities on the jury? I mean, how does Oprah Winfrey make that commentary when she didn’t sit through the case?
First of all, Winfrey was not talking about Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence, she was talking about the involvement of race in the case. And how it resonates with African Americans. But, apparently, while it’s racial malpractice for non-juror Oprah to comment on how she views it, it’s A-OK for white Officer Ingraham to rule on how a black woman who was born into the segregated south should speak about her own racial perceptions and experience of a national news event.
The other guest, Horace Cooper, was the designated African American Oprah attacker - thereby making it a “fair and balanced” two against the Oprah-defending Sawyer. Cooper said, “The problem isn’t, ‘Does racism exist?’ …The question is how relevant is that in impacting what goes on in the real lives of most Americans, black and white? And it is irrelevant. It’s not the number one issue, it’s not the number two issue, it’s not even the number 10 issue.”
And then he jumped on the Fox News meme of using the subject to malign African Americans: “Family formation and educational attainment have far more to do with what happens in the lives of not just black Americans but everyone in America.”
Of course, Oprah never said that racism was THE most important thing, she was saying that it’s an issue, even for her today, and talking about how the Trayvon Martin case resonates with African Americans. And considering that a lot of people believe that if Martin hadn’t been black he’d be alive today and/or that George Zimmerman would be in jail, it’s hard to say that THAT’s not an important factor about what happens in the lives of black Americans. In fact, while I’m not African American, I’m willing to bet that at least part of the reason the case resonated so much is because they feel like they or their children could have been Trayvon Martin. Even President Obama said he could have been Trayvon Martin.
But I guess Oprah didn’t get the memo that she’s supposed to clear her comments with the (white) Fox News racial police before she utters them. Ingraham continued her lecture:
Oprah Winfrey could have an enormous impact on the hip hop community by leading the charge against the dehumanizing language – not just the n-word but the c-word, the w-word, the s-word, the f-word, but she chose to say, "Well, I understand, although I wouldn’t use it personally.”
… I wish that Oprah Winfrey would address other issues. If she’s gonna get into this? Like the three black boys who beat up that white kid and …it would be good for her to address those types of issues as well and she could lead on that.
Yeah, and I’ll buy Ingraham’s sincerity when she speaks out against the kind of anti-immigrant hate speech that Rep. Steve King employed when he described children of undocumented immigrants as marijuana mules with calves “the size of cantaloupes.” Oh that's right, she supported him. And tell me where I missed her condemning Rush Limbaugh’s sexist remarks that the real reason Oprah was discriminated against in a Zurich boutique was because she’s overweight. Or how about George Zimmerman’s brother’s racist rants? Or the racist, criminal history of George Zimmerman’s character witness? When white people start demanding white people condemn any and every ill in the white community, I'll believe they have altruistic motives in demanding the same from blacks.
In the meanwhile, it speaks volumes that Race Officer Ingraham only seems to patrol the African American beat.
Ms. Laura has no morals or character. She sits in for a man who has treated his ex-wife like dirt. That’s okay with Ms. Laura. She’s only concerned about her image and money.
This dumb bunny is not the brightest flashlight in the dark.