by William Windsor
Member since:
July 8, 2009

Whoops! Did Bill O'Reilly just say that?

May 28, 2010 11:31 AM UTC
views: 0 | 6 people recommend this | comments: 32


Bill O'Reilly talking with Professor Marc Lamont Hill, a regular guest/target on O'Reilly's show, about securing the US/Mexico border, said to Hill, "“Say you’re a cocaine dealer—and you kind of look like one a little bit.” To which Hill replied, gamely: “As do you… you know, you actually look like a cocaine user.”

I thought having black commentators on the show was supposed to make O'Reilly look less like a racist. Evidently sometimes it just oozes out of their pores. Ed Shultz featured the incident in the segment of his program called Psycho Talk. Watch it here.

Anyone want to take a crack at deconstructing this little exchange that occurred on national television?



Comments: 32

Juan J Martinez May 28, 2010, 11:45am UTC
Oreilly has gone off the deep end. He is all about saying idiotic things as long as it gains him ratings which equal more money.
Dan E. May 28, 2010, 1:50pm UTC
I watched the segment and heard the comment, it was made in jest. Nuff said....Unless you are a liberal then you have to at least try to mischaracterize it.....If you don't you are just NOT a very good liberal.
William Windsor May 28, 2010, 2:01pm UTC
Racism 2.0 (look it up)
Dan E. May 28, 2010, 4:33pm UTC
I'll repeat it again for you William,
I watched the segment and the comment was made in jest.

Jest, humor, comedic attempt....Look them up.
William Windsor May 29, 2010, 3:03pm UTC
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
J. Reid May 30, 2010, 5:03pm UTC
Well Danny boy some things are a given, and you are given to ride with Bill O'Reilly, NUFF said! Bigots and racists ride on the same bus/train/plane/horse whatever!
Dan E. May 31, 2010, 7:27am UTC
Thing about it J,
Is that you have to twist his words into racism, because at face value they are NOT!
You can click the heels of your ruby sippers together and keep repeating "they are racists, they are racists" over and over and over again....It just isn't going to make them racist...except in your narrow minded mind.
Gail Mountain May 28, 2010, 3:11pm UTC
Umm. I'm glad you referenced this on the Thumbs Down, I've been playing catch-up since going on an extended vacation and I might have missed it. My brother, who has since died, was diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-80's, people didn't live very long then and AIDS "jokes" were rampant. It was when I first learned I had to tend to the discrimination in real time with those I associated with and it was actually quite fun to let someone finish a "joke" and then tell them, "My brother has AIDS, you know." Oops. There is no such thing as a prejudicial "joke," I believe it reveals what one really thinks.
William Windsor May 28, 2010, 3:39pm UTC
Good point, Gail. What you write here is a way that I can often tell who is a part of the dominant culture by what they write. It's not 100% accurate, but more accurate than it should be.

To be in the position you describe is an opportunity to see from a different perspective. People reveal more than they think they do.

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother. I've certainly lost many friends to AIDS over the years.
Gail Mountain May 28, 2010, 7:55pm UTC
Thanks William. As for the brother, he was actually surviving the AIDS but cancer of the esophogus snuck up on him and took him.

But. Way too many of us have lost way too many to AIDS, for sure.
Chuck Larlham May 28, 2010, 6:21pm UTC
Yep... a joke. The sort of joke that makes everyone who hears it cringe, because it's dismissive. It tells the person who is the butt of it that he/she isn't important enough for the speaker to care about what he says. The sort of joke that's hurtful, but if you complain, you're a poor sport. When I was a short, fat kid... I learned all about those sort of jokes - from the worst possible perspective.

Danny... you're a real piece of work, you are. You'd defend the Devil Incarnate if he professed himself a "Conservative."
Dan E. May 28, 2010, 8:54pm UTC
Chucky,
No matter how many times you repeat it or how loud you say it, You can't make it racist just by wishing it so!
You libs like to make up your own special definitions of words.....It's RACIST because I believe it should be considered racist.....even if it isn't racist!
William Windsor May 29, 2010, 3:07pm UTC
Chuck gets it. Dan never will.
Dan E. May 30, 2010, 11:19am UTC
You are correct on that one William...I am NOT a liberal....I don't go turning every rock looking for for racism I don't dissect every comment trying as hard as I can to figure how I can interpret it as racists.
J. Reid May 30, 2010, 5:05pm UTC
Living in the USA one needs not look for racism it finds you and does not wash off!
Dan E. May 31, 2010, 7:29am UTC
But J,
people like you and William dig for it...you mine it! You find it where it is NOT! And that is what this post is about!
William Windsor Jun 1, 2010, 3:11pm UTC
At Fox News, it is not necessary to "turn over rocks" or even "dig" to locate racism and racially conflicted views. Indeed, you have to wade through them—sometimes up to your chest.

Call them out, and Dan and other rush to defend/explain/rationalize them. The actions and statements can speak for themselves—as they usually do.
Donna Spirit May 28, 2010, 6:27pm UTC
How come, whenever a conservative makes a ridiculous statement, the right come out of the woodwork to claim "It was just a joke", but when a Democrat makes a faux pas, it HAS to be cut and dried truth?
Dan E. May 29, 2010, 9:17am UTC
I don't know Donna,
How is it whenever a Conservative makes an attempt at a joke, liberals claim it "racist"?
William Windsor May 29, 2010, 3:14pm UTC
It's because we're in a "post racial" society now, Donna. Characterizing black people as cocaine dealers can now (supposedly because of Barack Obama's election) be considered a joke. Aren't we all laughing?

But, gosh darn it, those conservatives keep saying what they mean. They just can't help it. Then, of course, someone quotes their words back to them and the "tap dancing" starts (with sincere apologies to tap dancers everywhere).
J. Reid May 30, 2010, 5:11pm UTC
Conservatives suffer from so many things and ANT [a psychological condition ] is what allows them to remain so fearful of normal hard working people who care about their neighbor without regard of their color or dialect or first language or religion.
Would O'Reilly have said the same thing if the other guy had been white? That's what we don't know.

But yeah, I'd have to say O'Reilly does remind me of a coked up dentist that worked in the same building I did. Especially when the guy needed a bump.
Margaret Garside May 31, 2010, 3:40pm UTC
'Would O'Reilly have said the same thing if the other guy had been white?'

I'm guessing no.

Whether Oreally? was joking or nor, the remark was still in poor taste.
William Windsor May 31, 2010, 4:23pm UTC
There is a pattern of behavior here. This little side remark is not an isolated incident. Tell yourself whatever you need to, but it doesn't change the facts.
I don't watch Bill O'Reilly, William, because I don't like him. What I know about him is from clips and stuff on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I won't watch FOX because they all strike me as smug and smarmy.

Sometimes, I can't decide if it's better to shine the hard light on these people or just ignore them. Most the times I go with shining the light because if you ignore cancer, it doesn't go away.

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