Bill O’Reilly hosted Father Michael Pfleger last night – yes, the same Father Pfleger whom O’Reilly and Fox News has relentlessly demonized was there - purportedly as an expert on the high rate of violent crime in Chicago. But it soon became pretty clear that O’Reilly was more interested in lecturing Pfleger about out-of-wedlock births in the black community than he was in any insights Pfleger had to offer for the increased violence. 

After Pfleger offered up his theories about the high crime rate (a culture of violence and guns), O’Reilly offered up his own theory: immorality in the black community.

Noting that most of the victims of violence in Chicago are minorities, O’Reilly asked, “Do you as a Catholic priest make any correlation between above 70% in the black community out-of-wedlock birth rate, whereas babies are being born primarily to single mothers who are poor, who have trouble supervising, no father in the house. Do you make any correlation between the morality of that situation and the violent crime you’re seeing?”

Pfleger didn't. He said, “What I do make a connection with is that we are living in a society where the family is broken apart, neighbors are broken apart – we’re a country now that we don’t talk to one another.”

O’Reilly pressed. “…You have a lot of African Americans in your church… Do you tell them not to have babies out of wedlock?”

Pfleger said “of course” he does. He later said, “This is not a black situation.”

O’Reilly interrupted, “No, it is a black situation. When you have above 70% in one ethnic group, it’s a black situation, Father!”

Pfleger said he sees the same thing in white communities.

But O’Reilly said the rate of unwed mothers is about 25% in white communities. “I think that we have to be honest about this…The more you have chaos in the family, the more violent crime you’re gonna have,” he said.

If O'Reilly really wants to be honest, he should note that out-of-wedlock birthrates are soaring in this country and not just among blacks. The Centers for Disease Control found in 2009 that from 1995 to 2002, the nonmarital birth rate for black women declined 12%. Also, the birthrate for unmarried Hispanic women is higher than for African Americans. Yet O'Reilly fixated on black babies from unwed mothers.

This is far from the first time O’Reilly has showed disdain for African Americans. Who can forget his visit to Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem where he was so pleasantly surprised to find everybody well mannered? Or his condescending interview with African American Jehmu Greene in which he said, “I think everybody understands that black Americans vote for the Democrats because of entitlement spending.” Or his patronizing attitude toward Trayvon Martin’s mother?