Culturally Deprived Bill O'Reilly: Clearly Missing the Fried Chicken and Watermelon

Bill O'Reilly provided the most racist restaurant review in modern times.  O'Reilly is surprised "there was no difference" between Harlem restaurants and other New York restaurants:

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."

The only thing missing was his take on the fried chicken and watermelon.

The beauty of the review was that it was heart-felt and unsolicited. O'Reilly did not understand the stereotype his innate bigotry provided last week.

In the spirit of furthering stereotypes about the dinning conditions in white restaurants I provide the following:

• Mobsters gunning down enemies in Brooklyn Italian restaurants as portrayed by Michael Corleone in The Godfather. A murder or two never hurts sales and food never suffers unless the chef is shot.
• Hunny Bunny and Pumpkin holding up the patrons in every Denny's or Perkins in Los Angeles. Pulp Fiction proving once again that poor white trash have no table manners.
• Young white women with their sexual displays and no regard for the feelings of adjacent diners in When Harry Met Sally.
• Never think that dining in the City by the Bay is tranquil and serene if some rogue Irish cop in Sudden Impact finds that it is time to "Make my day."
• And we won't even go into Alice's Restaurant, least the health officials shut it down.

O'Reilly is close to sixty years old. The average age of his viewers and listeners is seventy-one. What is so stunning is that a man his age with his experience could go so far in life and be so ignorant. He is a fool. 

It is refreshing to see the man naked and honest. I am sad for him.

I am more saddened for a nation that welcomes his ignorance into its homes. Capable of such profound stupidity on the nature of black culinary habits, one must realize how he comes to his preposterous conclusions on matters of war, public education, global warming, and violence.

Update: 10:33am. Charlie Sykes in a full court defense on behalf of O'Reilly. He is challenging critics that they have not heard the entire statement and it was taken out of context. MediaMatters has it all.

Sykes, like O'Reilly does not get it. There is no question that O'Reilly was trying, in his own way, to pay a compliment and make the point that all people aspire to the same high standards. Fine.

But it was done in a condescending, race-based manner. In context, what he might as well have said was, "When blacks want to, they can dine in a civilized polite manner like white people. And some do and I commend them for it"

Update 2:45 pm Shark and Shepard weighs in:

Locally, Paul Soglin and Eugene Kane repeated the point.

I doubt that either of our local friends actually listened to the segment, It was apparently part of an extended commentary on racial stereotypes and the way in which people respond to the legacy of racial expression.

Rick, I did listen to the entire discussion and provided a link to it earlier this morning when Charlie Sykes also accused the critics of taking the matter out of context.

The point is that Bill O'Reilly tragically falls into a stereotype himself..old white man who claim not to have a prejudice bone in their body or thought in their head, but because of their own limited experiences, usually self-imposed, do not understand, that when comparing characteristics or behavior by race, it is implicitly racist to commend one race for meeting a standard of another race:

• He is as honest as a white man
• He is as fast as a black.
• She is as smart at accumulating money as a Jew.
• He is doing so well with those Stop and Go's that you would think he was an Arab.
• She dresses like a.................. you fill in the blank.

Comments

[rag]

I read the transcript and, in the context of things, the comment was not racist. It might not have been the most appropriate or enlightened expression but it was not racist.

There is growing concern among Americans of all colors that there is a mass media impression of black Americans that parallels the caricatures derived from certain segments of pop culture. There are those in the black community who have been bold enough to raise the point that whites will be flamed -- and justifiably so -- for using the "n-word" yet many rappers do so without such attention or criticism. The media, even the mainstream media, has created misimpressions that needs to be corrected.

I spent three years living in a predominantly black community, an experience I consider privileged to have had. I know how inaccurate stereotypes can be and I wish the media would devote more effort to dispelling rather than perpetuating them.

[Enquiring Minds Want to Know]

Is the reported average age of O'Reilly's audience literal fact? Or hyperbole?

[Paul]

I recalled reading that somewhere in the last year. I will see if I can find it.
Update: see link in post.

[Walter Ego]

While in context O’Reilly’s remarks were probably not meant as racist they came out that way. The fact is Billo is just another privileged white guy who can’t get over the fact that black people can behave in public.

The source of the ‘average’ age of Billo’s viewers is from the NY Times article linked in this blog post. Whatever the actual demographic, it is without doubt that O’Reilly attracts a primarily older and whiter audience. Keith Olbermann has been attracting a ‘better’ and younger demo (from the advertisers point of view) on his show opposite O’Reilly.

[Mark F.]

I think Bill was actually trying to say something positive, but it comes out very bad because it is so obviously based on stereotypical assumptions. He makes it worse by being completely clueless about the problems with what he said.

[Charlie]

O'Reilly's remarks showed that he's kind of clueless, but I don't think he's a bigot. White lefties (like me) shouldn't sneer at him for this. When's the last time one of us ate in a restaurant in a black neighborhood?

[Stephen Karlson]

I believe the older word for Mr O'Reilly's tone is "patronizing." A caller to the Sykes show that I heard while in transit might have been attempting to make the same point, but for Mr Sykes jumping all over him.

[Bob Keith]

I used to give O'Reilly more credit than Limbaugh because O'Reilly accually bothered to finish college. However, one is just an educated boob and the other is just a boob. And, I am not what you can peg hole as a "lefty" out to rip right wingers. My humble analysis - they are both rich boobs.

Can any one out there name me a talking head hack from the big media that is not a millionaire? O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Couric, Cooper, Olbermann, King, Imus, Franken, Matthews, Rather, Lauer, Hannnity, Drudge, Beck, need I trudge on?

Be careful to note that half the nuts in my talking head boob list are right wing - and yet like I say, I am no "lefty."

Its not really right vs left - there is little difference now days - the leaders and talking head spokesmen of the two-party paradigm are all rich. Nor is it about white commentator talking heads making gaffes. No, it is more about millionaire boobs living above me the rabble and them talking down to me the rabble. We analyze these rich nitwits as if we are all on the same team with them - as if they might care what we ("the folks" as O'Reilly says - what a load of crap) have to say about them. These rich fools live above 99 percent of us. There is little any of them have to say that is now, or will ever be meaningful to a guy like me.

Bob Keith
cooldadiomedia.com

[Rick Esenberg]

Paul

He didn't say that they were acting white. He said that they were not acting as many stereotypes would have it - stereotypes that he went on to say are encouraged by hip-hop and that, consequently, many white people erroneously believe. Juan Williams agreed. Would it have been better had he pretended that there are no such stereotypes?