Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Monday said that he knew the difference between black musicians because he's a "brother."
During a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day segment criticizing a New York Times columnist for pointing out that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would be more popular among racists than current President Barack Obama, conservative media critic Bernie Goldberg showed O'Reilly a picture of himself with a black rapper.
"Here's a picture, Bill, of Ice-T, one the the iconic figures in black culture and music," Goldberg said.
"That's Ice Cube!" O'Reilly interrupted.
"No. No. No. No," Goldberg disagreed. "That's Ice-T."
"No, it's Ice Cube, Bernie," O'Reilly pointed out. "That's how white you are. You don't know Ice-T from Ice Cube. That's Ice Cube."
"I'm a brother, man," the culture warrior host added. "You can't be doing that to me. I know the Cubes from the Ts."
Goldberg shot back: "Until you spend a little time chilling with Ice Cube, or Ice-T for that matter, don't be making racial references at me."
Finally getting around to New York Times columnist Lee Siegel's observation that racists would prefer Romney over Obama, Goldberg complained, "This is not political analysis, this is a nasty strain of shallow stupidity."
"Isn't a shame that we have to talk about this stuff on Martin Luther King's birthday?" O'Reilly asked. "Isn't it a shame that we have to be talking about that garbage on this day?"
Speaking of iced tea, O'Reilly said in 2007 that he “couldn’t get over the fact” that Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem was “exactly the same” as any other restaurant.
“There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M.F.-er, I want more iced tea,’” the Fox News host later told then-National Public Radio correspondent Juan Williams.
