Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Liberal group blasts O?Reilly?s racial comment
Radio, TV host notes lack of ?craziness? in famed Harlem restaurant

NEW YORK - After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel?s Bill O?Reilly told a radio audience he ?couldn?t get over the fact? that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia?s and other restaurants.

?It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,? he said. ?And there wasn?t any kind of craziness at all.?

O?Reilly said his fellow patrons were tremendously respectful as he ate dinner with civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The comments were made during O?Reilly?s nationally syndicated radio broadcast last week. The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America called attention to them by distributing a transcript and audio clip on the Internet.

?This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings,? said Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News Channel. ?It?s sad.?

O?Reilly spoke during a general discussion about racial relations with Fox News analyst Juan Williams. O?Reilly said he believed black Americans were ?starting to think more and more for themselves? and backing away from a race-based culture encouraged by Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

He said he treated Sharpton to dinner to thank him for appearing on his Fox News Channel show.

Mark of racial progress?
O?Reilly pointed to the lack of difference between Sylvia?s and other restaurants as a marker of racial progress. He also noted that he went to an Anita Baker concert recently where the audience was evenly mixed between blacks and whites.

?The band was excellent, but they were dressed in tuxedoes, and this is what white America doesn?t know, particularly people who don?t have a lot of interaction with black Americans,? he said. ?They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.?

Williams concurred that too many people believe there?s little else in black culture beyond profane rap.

?That?s right,? O?Reilly said. ?There wasn?t one person in Sylvia?s who was screaming, ?M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.?

Sharpton said he was taken aback that anyone would be surprised at how blacks acted at Sylvia?s and will ask O?Reilly on ?The O?Reilly Factor? Wednesday to explain what he meant. Nothing O?Reilly said at the dinner was offensive, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger.

Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, called O?Reilly?s comments ?ignorant and racially charged.?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20979043/
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 :rofl:

This just blows my mind.  You really have to wonder if people like O'Reily ever talk with regular people.  This is the best part:

and this is what white America doesn?t know, particularly people who don?t have a lot of interaction with black Americans,? he said. ?They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.?

Um, no we don't...YOU do.  hes the one who is out of touch. 

Whats even funnier is people actually listen to this douche bag and think he makes good points  :rofl:

What an ignorant fool he is ... it is no wonder he makes "The Worst Person In America" list so often on Oberman's show.

Why do people like this guy continue to make comments like this, everytime they do they get burned


He was trying to be postive, and thats the sad part... He didnt even realize he was being condescending   ::)

What a douche..

Doesn't everyone yell that out while dining?

Where do you dine when you're out? :P

Where ever they serve Beef Jerky, Oregano and what ever kind of spaghetti your avatar is! HA HA :beer:

bill said nothing wrong,   he's never been to a resturaunt in harlem- and was surprised when things did'nt go the way he thought they might.

 :rofl:  Too funny. 

Good point.

let's use this analogy.? i'm from the south.? let's say someone said "i just visited west virginia and i was shocked that the people were not in-bred mental defects who have sex with their relatives and rape water-rafting tourists (yes, i'm referencing Deliverance)."? ?The point here would be that person is saying "This is what I think of THOSE people." So, I question why O"Reilly felt the need to say anything.? How was his comment relavant, and the answer is it isn't.? ?

And regarding this--- "O?Reilly said he believed black Americans were ?starting to think more and more for themselves? and backing away from a race-based culture encouraged by Sharpton and Jesse Jackson" --- let's look at what's happening right now in Jena Louisiana and we can see racism is alive and well in this country and is not the product of African-Americans continuing to endulge in a "race-based culture."?

My point is ignorance like this in and of itself is offensive.? Also, one more point...? Bill O'Reilly is a public figure in his fifties and this? is the first time he's ever sat amongst a predominantly black gathering??? I wonder why that is.....? ?

his comments were taken out of context.

but since people hate this guy so much, many are very quick to judge without taking a look at all the facts.

but you people play right into his hands. everyone talks about him all the time. and who is on his show tonight? jesse jackson. great publicity for the show. 

No spin zone..?  I want ratings zone? Ah Yeah!

give me a freaking break - what facts? who in white America thinks black restaurants are like a Ludacris video?  the ignorance of O'Reilly and his comments is baffling.

How so?? He was expecting a restraunt to be ghetto, because of its location.... It wasnt and he was suprised.. Profiling if you ask me....

the facts as in what he actually said.

again, the comments were taken out of context. if you listened to the full 2 minutes of what he was saying, you'd see his comments were not racist or ignorant.

your comments however, are quite naive. do you honestly believe there are NOT white people with negative views of black culture, black neighborhoods, and black people themselves??????

wrong. he was not expecting that. if you heard the full clip you would realize that. hence the term "out of context".

if that WAS his point, his job would probably be in danger.

Enlighten me then... What was his point???

 :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

Rightttttttttttt.

O'Reilly is a douche and a tool.

Just watch Outfoxed for details.

he was criticizing white america for being racist.

his point was that white americans who don't know or interact with blacks, are swayed by negative images of blacks on TV. and that is wrong.

and that white america needs to understand black neighborhoods are similar to Little Italy and other neighborhoods.

The racism-term is being so watered down today :P

negative views? of course.  there will always be ignorant racists in the world.

do those same racists think that EVERY black person looks like and acts like an extra in a dr. dre or ludacris video?  That they're screaming and cursing at each other while ordering iced tea?  please.

O'Reilly is exactly the kind of white person you just described!!!  His comments show exactly how out of touch he is.  the morons who think black neighborhoods are crime infested with constant drive bys and "gangsta's" hanging out on every corner are just as ignorant as O'reilly.  who exactly do you think he was enlightening here.  do you honestly think there were people listening to Bill O's babbling saying to themselves "wait, blacks don't scream mother fucker in restaurant when they order a drink!?!?  no way!!!!" 

"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 exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship.

...There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' ...You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."

"couldn't get over the fact"  "it was exactly the same, even though it was run by blacks"!!!  WOW!!!   ::)

imagine....black people sitting down and ordering and just having fun...with NO craziness!!!  its just MIND BLOWING!!!   ::)

honestly reading those comments, you have to laugh at what a fucking retard Bill-O is.  :rofl:

i dont think the comments by the semselves are racist, but they are terribly condeescending and indicative of someone who has very little understanding of what he's talking about.

agreed - i wouldn't put him in the same boat as the KKK, far from it, but his comments were just so mind blowingly stupid/ignorant and out of touch with the way real people think.

for someone who gets paid to talk, his choice of words was just ridiculous.

? ? Honestly while not a big fan of O'Reilly, I think his words were out of taken out of context with the way it was viewed by thoughs who either dislike him or dislike his politics.? He is out of touch with regular people because he doesn't have hang around them anymore, not unlike the Rev. Al Sharpton they just need a bigger audience.? In the early 80's, Rev. Al was often seen hanging around midtown eateries and bars to get to know people in the media so he can create who he is now.? I'm not sure if the big "O's" words weren't a plug for the restaraunt as well?? The place doen't have just black people eating there.? There are a mix of regulars.? Oh and guess what, white people have been moving back to Harlem over the last five years.? There are many new buildings and many new faces of all races around.? Again I will view O'Reilly and Rev. Al media seekers with different views but the same agenda and that is more viewers and seekers of attention period.  Many people have done just that by making this such a big deal.  O'Factor and Rev. Al are probably laughing over it at some coffee house.

I think those are fair assessments.  I just can't believe that someone in the ultra PC world of television would think these are comments that wouldn't be, at the least, controversial.

it's almost as if some people don't understand what "out of context" means.

if you heard the entire discussion, you would see that there was nothing racist said. and you would actually understand o'reilly's point.

if he said those things and actually meant that HE was surprised, than that would be racist and he would probably lose his job.

the fact that no one is even suggesting o'reilly be suspended or fired, is evidence that he actually said nothing wrong, or insensitive. because in today's society, you are punished even for just being ignorant.

this whole thing started because a left wing media organization tried to make him look bad, and the main stream media went right along with it. sound biased???

How about Chris Rock and his "white cracker" comments? :P

It doesn't take much to make that asshole look bad.

In context, Bill was trying to (in his own way) to show that there is no difference between white restaurants and black-owned restaurants.  I'll give him that.  He was merely trying to point out to some bigoted people here that they are wrong in what they think.

Nevertheless, there would be nothing wrong with Bill apologizing only to those who took sincere offense at his comments, which anyone could agree come off with bad taste at the very least.  Personally, having to "prove" the reputation of a black-owned restaurant purely by white standards is one of the many racist constructs in the U.S. 

When someone uses a racial slur, it's bigotry.  To me, bigotry is personal, while racism is the way a society is ingrained with a structure that promotes one race over others.  Racism is a social problem, when a society views an entire race as more troublesome, or less able to run or dine at a fine restaurant, for instance.  What Bill said (and I don't think he meant to do this) was to further the idea that what is white is ideal: the standard all strive for.

The story still developing in Jena, Louisiana makes a good example.  Hanging nooses in that tree is a stupid act by bigoted kids.  You'll never erase bigotry from any population, but by letting them off easy shows that, as a society, we value less the punishment of white kids insinuating threats of death to black students.  On the other hand, a white kid gets beat up (and those responsible should face some punishment, although the kid wasn't hurt that bad) by black kids and we throw the book at them.  Thus, our society is how it functions: we value different levels of  punishment on the basis of race, which is clearly a racist allocation of values.

I believe attacking Bill too much over this conversation is missing the point: we know he meant different, the real enemy is the language, belief structure, etc. in our society that leads to the racist structure that still exists.

Of course his comments were taken out of context, to some extent.  And I'll agree that his "M.F.-er" comment was the most blatantly so.  But the entire thing wasn't taken out of context.  His comment that blacks are "starting to think more and more for themselves" wasn't taken out of context, and it seems to imply that blacks haven't been thinking for themselves since...well, I'm not sure WHEN he thinks they went into their great thinking hibernation.  And he says this: "I couldn't get over the fact that there wasn't any difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant."  When he says those words, he wasn't referring to anyone else's perception of black America, but his own.  Now, is it that big of a deal?  Not really.  Ignorance and racism are two different things.  He shouldn't be fired for it or anything like that. 

Anyway, for anyone else who wants to try to be "fair and balanced" here is the full audio:

http://clips.mediamatters.org/static/audio/oreilly-20070919-race.mp3