Bill O’Reilly was almost seething about the “race hustlers” who refuse to recognize that O’Reilly’s contempt for African Americans, whom O’Reilly described as “ill educated” and having “tattoos on their forehead” is just a reflection of his integrity. Or something.
O’Reilly spent 8:36 hating on Americans for thinking the federal government should provide free “education, health care, good jobs, financial security in old age – on and on.”
According to O’Reilly, that’s “counter” to “how America was founded.” Apparently, O’Reilly hasn’t gotten the news flash that a lot of values have changed since then, such as the belief that slavery is immoral and illegal.
Regardless, if O’Reilly really cared about promoting good citizenship via self-sufficiency, you’d think he’d want to encourage good behavior, not merely berate what he sees as bad behavior – that just happens to be on the part of African Americans.
O’REILLY: When Al Sharpton and his grievance lobby assert that black Americans are oppressed by a racist system bent on hurting them, he provides an excuse for a litany of apathetic and destructive behaviors. The kids struggling in a bad school, with parents who don’t care, needs all the encouragement leadership can give him or her. Not a list of historical atrocities that can cause even more bitterness for the child. The cold fact is, very few political people are willing to address vexing problems by telling you the truth.
Got irony? Because it’s hard to think of anything more grievance filled than Fox News and Bill O’Reilly, including this segment.
At a little over six minutes into this particular grievance mongering, O’Reilly got around to what I suspect was what was really eating at him: being widely criticized for his “tattoo” comments to Donald Trump last week.
O’REILLY: When I asked Mr. Trump how he would combat a culture among some African-Americans that scorns conventional behavior, he replied that job growth would take care of it.
[O’Reilly played the clip of his exchange with Trump]
O’REILLY: Now, the race hustlers who apparently have not walked the streets of poor neighborhoods lately, immediately accused me of racism. And that is why the acute problem of cultural deprivation among under-classed children of all colors is never addressed. The smear merchants hammer anyone who does so. It’s beyond disgraceful that powerful people look away from the real problem.
Have not walked the streets of poor neighborhoods lately? I’ve got to wonder when the last time O’Reilly did. When he was invited a few years ago to visit some poor, black neighborhoods in New York to see what constructive efforts are being made to address the issues he whines about, O'Reilly refused, saying, “I taught in a poor school. I know what’s going on.” O’Reilly hasn’t taught school in over 30 years.
Furthermore, President Obama is one of the powerful people trying to address “the real problem” with his My Brother’s Keeper initiative. But when was the last time O’Reilly showcased any of those efforts? Never, as far as I know, though I’ve heard him mention in passing his approval of the program.
But heck, focusing on the positive might take away his excuse for whitesplaining and lecturing to African Americans:
O’REILLY: Mr. Trump is noble in his intent to create jobs and train Americans to do them. But that will require more than trade deals and rhetoric. It will require a cultural change in many working class and poor precincts. If you reject the conventional road to success, education and hard work, you’ll fail in our capitalistic system, no matter what kind of outlandish promises Bernie Sanders makes. It’s all about personal responsibility and motivation. And who is preaching that message? Who?
The truth is that individual motivation is being destroyed by phony politicians seeking power, by promising an endless series of entitlements to a population that’s moving away from achievement and into the gimme zone. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Until that deep, cultural flaw is exposed, until the phonies, race hustlers and corporate greed heads are called out, we’ll continue to see big lies spouted by political deceivers and enabled by a gutless media. God help America, and that’s the memo.
If Bill O’Reilly doesn’t want to be perceived as a racist, he should stop acting like one. Period.
Watch him above, from the April 18 The O’Reilly Factor.
(Transcript mostly via Media Matters)
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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