We had to know that if Rush Limbaugh was going to be going after Oprah Winfrey for her claims of racism after a shop clerk refused to show her a purse that she assumed she could not afford, Bill-O sure as hell wasn't going to pass this one up.
Bill O'Reilly opened up his show this Wednesday evening by doing a little white mansplaining to Oprah and then later to his two black female guests, on how he doesn't deny the racism and sexism or that the discrimination Oprah said she experienced exists, but he really thinks the best way to handle it is to just shut the hell up about it.
As Ari Rabin-Havt at Media Matters explained not long ago, this is what you call Bill O'Reilly's Race Hustle:
Last night in the midst of a scornful monologue Bill O'Reilly appealed to his audience to "call out the racial charlatans."
Gladly.
O'Reilly's now multiday diatribe against what he terms the "grievance industry" is endemic of his scornful attitude towards anyone who works to solve clear racial imbalances that still persist in America today.
Go read the rest of the post where he went into more detail on the Talking Points Memo from July, where O'Reilly was pulling the same stunt as he did in the clip from this week, but I wanted to include how he summed up the post because it applies here as well.
As opposed to looking for solutions to solve clear racial divides in our judicial, economic, and education systems, O'Reilly's answer is shut up and stop whining because you have it good in America.
That is O'Reilly's race hustle -- demonizing anyone who speaks up against inequality, attempting to bully them into silence.
Bingo.
Rough transcript of the Talking Points Memo portion of the segment below.
O'REILLY: Oprah Winfrey talking about race, that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo. One of the wealthiest women in the world Ms. Winfrey recently travel to Switzerland to attend the wedding of singer Tina Turner. While in Zurich Ms. Winfrey says she was humiliated by shop clerk who refused to show her an expensive purse. […]
Because she's a moron. That's why. I believe every American has been insulted in a restaurant or a store at some time and when that happens you do would Miss Winfrey did, you wall out. Later you can call up and complain to the owner of the property. But Oprah was heavily implying that the disrespect shown her was racist. The clerk involved denies that.
Ms. Winfrey also said this about her current status. […]
Now Ms. Winfrey has gotten a lot of heat for her criticism and her statements but Talking Points believes her critics are misguided.
That was Oprah's experience and she's a perfect right to express your feelings about it. The truth is there are racists. There are people who don't like women holding power. There are all kinds of loons running around and around everybody knows it.
But here's the most important part of the story. Oprah Winfrey and everybody else should ignore those troglodytes unless the situation is serious.
A foolish insult is not. The truth is, you're not going change the minds of the ignorant and it's not worth the effort in any case. Also to internalize to internalize this kind of stuff is destructive to human being.
As we've been reporting, there is a huge grievance industry in America that peddles victimization all day long. What good does that do?
Oprah Winfrey is perhaps the best example of a talented person who made it on her own in America. She's now one of the most powerful human beings on the planet. Her color certainly did not hold her back from achieving that.
So some idiot shop clerk insults Ms. Winfrey. That's wrong, but no big deal. Oprah and get on a private jet and fly anywhere she wants to buy anything she wants. She has made it in America because she worked hard and use the talent god granted her.
Summing up the victimhood card is useless to Oprah and to everybody else. There is racism in the world. It's not going away, and if you can change it try, but most of the time ignore it. Don't let it dampen your life.
