Al Sharpton’s Friday night commentary directed at Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh must have struck quite a nerve. Tonight, Bill O’Reilly attempted to strike back but, unfortunately for him, he only wound up making himself look worse. His parting shot, telling Sharpton, “You day is done,” may have been intended to sound like Dirty Harry but it was more reminiscent of Clint Eastwood talking to the empty chair at the Republican convention last summer.

The problem for O’Reilly is that Sharpton completely, totally, 100% exposed O’Reilly’s race baiting for what it is: a divisive, hostile attempt to change the subject away from the issues of social justice that the Trayvon Martin killing raised. O’Reilly puts the thinnest coating of good will onto his comments, delivers them to a nearly all-white audience and then plays the victim when African Americans don’t get all warm and fuzzy at his just-under-the-surface hostility, condescension and scolding. For example, tonight's "good intentions:"

Out of tragedy can come something positive. And that is why Talking Points is urging the civil rights folks to stop maligning the country and face up to a huge problem that is directly harming millions, primarily in the African American community.

Young black Americans are the most violent group in this country by far. The reason is the collapse of the traditional African American family unit. 50 years ago, when blacks had it much worse than they have it now, 25% of black babies were born out of wedlock. Today, the number is close to 75%. That is catastrophic. But the civil rights industry and the white power structure basically ignore the problem. They also ignore the entertainment industry putting out vile products aimed at young people, some of whom incorporate the gangsta culture into their own lives.

Then it was time to go after Sharpton.

O’Reilly played the part of Sharpton’s rebuke that undoubtedly caused the most pain: Those infamous comments from his then-radio show in which O’Reilly expressed surprise that the patrons at Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem were so well behaved.

There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, "M-Fer, I want more iced tea." …They were ordering and having fun and there wasn’t any craziness at all.

You may be surprised to know that, like former News Hound chrish, who originally posted about those comments in 2007, I don’t think O’Reilly meant any harm when he said that. But, unfortunately for him, he inadvertently lifted the lid on his deep-seated prejudices and there’s no unseeing what was revealed.

But O’Reilly tried – in an effort that only made him look worse.

Accusing Sharpton of taking his words “completely out of context” (as if anything could change their patent implications), O’Reilly continued by playing “the set up” to the "M-Fer" quote, adding that it’s “something the dishonest Sharpton would never run.”

Black people in this country understand that they’ve had a very, very tough go of it. And some of them can get past that and some of them cannot. I don’t think there’s a black American who hasn’t had a personal insult that they’ve had to deal with because of the color of their skin. I don’t think there’s one in the country. So you gotta accept that as being the truth.

O’Reilly now asked his (white) audience, “Does that sound anti-black to you?” Actually, it did a tad but regardless, racial prejudices are a little more complicated and nuanced than O’Reilly was suggesting. The fact that he doesn’t get that and/or doesn’t want to get that says a lot about his racial attitudes, too. But rather than quit while he was behind, O’Reilly continued with another clip from that ill-fated radio show:

You know, when Sharpton and I walked in, it was, like, big commotion and everything, but everybody was very nice. And 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—it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship; it was the same. And that’s really what this society is all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference, there’s no difference.

Well, except for the differences that O’Reilly can’t stop talking about in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting and the George Zimmerman verdict. You know, the ones with the high black crime rate and the out-of-wedlock mothers and the “mitigating” factors behind racial profiling and the community with civil rights leaders O’Reilly can’t stop trashing.

But then O’Reilly really went off the rails.

Sharpton and others are attacking me because I am a threat to them. They have failed. Failed. To deal effectively with problems in the black community and they make a lot of money by promoting racial division.

That promoting racial division? I think it takes one to know one, O’Reilly.

Talking Points believes the day of the race hustlers is coming to an end. This ‘we’ and ‘them’ business? Gets the country nowhere. Fair-minded Americans well understand there are severe problems in the black community that have to be solved and it will take honest, courageous people to do that.

If O'Reilly feels so confident he's one of those "honest, courageous people" to help solve those problems, why doesn't he go on a lecture tour with his message to the black community? You know, do something to walk the walk about making something positive come out of the Trayvon Martin tragedy? Yet O'Reilly dismissively turned down an invitation just to visit Harlem or Washington Heights with a sociology and black studies professor. That spoke just as much about his attitude toward African Americans as his recap of his visit to Sylvia's. 

Addressing Sharpton, O’Reilly concluded his Talking Points commentary by saying, “Your day is done.”

You can hope, O’Reilly. But that won’t make it so.

PS I'll have Hannity's response to Sharpton tomorrow.