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Shocker: Black people act like people!

zuzu

Certainly news to Bill O’Reilly:

During the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, discussing his recent trip to have dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s, a famous restaurant in Harlem, Bill O’Reilly reported that he “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful,” adding: “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.” Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O’Reilly asserted: “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.” O’Reilly also stated: “I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They’re getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They’re just trying to figure it out. ‘Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.”

I think I’m going to head over to Fox News HQ and start screaming for iced tea and falafel, M-Fer.

h/t: evil fizz.

44 thoughts on Shocker: Black people act like people!

  4. O’Reilly asserted: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’

    Asserting in tones of wondrous surprise, no doubt.

    Jesus, I’d laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic.

  5. Just like how at that all-white Italian restaurant in the suburbs, nobody was being gunned down for squealing to the FBI on the Family.

  6. my mouth was open so long, i slobbered on myself….

    Bill was alive during jim crow. who does he think “led us into” that “race based” society???

  7. So next time i go to a restaurant, i’m definitely shouting “M-Fer*, i want more iced tea!” Just because that sounds like a funny thing to say.

    *Not “motherfucker.” Just “M-Fer.”

  10. Faux News is more like reading a tabloid than a news site…

    Are the above statements made by Bill O’Reilly, radio/tv personality, or Bill O’Reilly soldier for the Confederacy circa 1856?

  13. It is kind of amazing that Bill O´Reilly can go out in public without people swearing at him.

    Do people who say motherfucker want iced tea?

  14. “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 agree w/ o’reilly. we non-whites are just the same as whites. we’re as violent, bigoted, intelligent, and creative as everyone else. there is no authentic point of view to represent us, despite what he multiculturalists say.

    i listened to the clip. o’reilly wasn’t really gobsmacked that blacks were just like whites. he knew it all along. and juan williams wasn’t offended either.

    but sadly, sameness in the human condition has become newsworthy since the rise of (ironically) western cultural relativism.

    so i don’t blame o’reilly for making it a point.

  15. What the hell? Seriously? He said that? He actually said those words, without any irony, without immediately feeling the need to smash himself over the head with a hammer?

  16. I think I’m going to head over to Fox News HQ and start screaming for iced tea and falafel, M-Fer.

    Bwah! You should lead a demo.

    What do we want?
    FALAFEL, M-FER!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

  17. If I didn’t know he was a news polemicist who attended college and has a grad degree from Harvard, I would have thought he was another overly sheltered person whose knowledge of African-Americans came solely from consuming the most one-dimensional stereotypes the mass media has to offer.

  18. How many other pundits and reporters think the way that he does?

    Congressmen?

    Judges? Lawyers? Doctors? Cops?

    Is this complete and racist insanity specific to him, or a product of circumstances that affected other people, too?

    Can they be educated, or coaxed into retirement?

  19. What the hell? Seriously? He said that? He actually said those words, without any irony, without immediately feeling the need to smash himself over the head with a hammer?

    You know who Bill O´Reilly is, right?

    I´m…yeah. I think this might be the worst thing I have specific memory of him saying. Please bomb San Francisco, terrorists? Fuck you, 9/11 orphan, for having the temerity to be anti-war? Hey, baby, wanna fondle my chickpea patties? All impressive contenders, but this might really take the cake.

  20. …. what the hell? How… what? Huh?

    I’m stupefied.

    The first part would be bad enough on its own since it just shows how unbelievably ignorant and racist he is. But then he tries to explain why this unexpected miracle happened — it must be because black people are finally getting somewhere?!

    Uh… how does he explain that Sylvia’s has been pretty much the same kind of restaurant for the last 45 years?

    Also, Sylvia’s is probably the single most popular soul food restaurant in Harlem, for tourists as well. It probably used to be true that it was “primarily black patronship” and maybe there were more black folks there than Bill O. has ever seen in one place… but it’s “primarily tourist patronship” now so his comments are even weirder.

  23. Louis Farrakhan: “So I went into an Italian restaurant outside of Charleston, West Virginia while travelling with a business associate. When we went in, we were so surprised by the array of orderly white people! I did not recognize a single serial killer among the patrons!

    Furthermore, the food was pretty good, but it was the lack cross-eyed inbreds picking “Dueling Banjos” that surprised me the most. During our brief gustatory sojourn, none of the waitstaff or managers appeared to talk like the mush-mouthed Caucasian from “King of the Hill”, and none was seen to have been actively attempting to %@*$# their sister.

    Perhaps some day I will plan another cultural exchange visit to one of their restaurants.”

  24. Wow. This is the most racist thing I’ve heard in weeks. And we just came out of a whole mess of Jena 6 coverage. So yeah. That’s pretty fucking impressive. You really have outdone yourself this time, Bill. You really, really have.

  25. exholt:

    If I didn’t know he was a news polemicist who attended college and has a grad degree from Harvard, I would have thought he was another overly sheltered person whose knowledge of African-Americans came solely from consuming the most one-dimensional stereotypes the mass media has to offer.

    Just to point out (in case you weren’t being sarcastic, and if you were, sorry, I’ve only had one coffee today so far): there is NOTHING about attending college, and especially nothing about attending grad school at Harvard, that prevents one from being overly sheltered. And heck: he’s a purveyor of one-dimensional media stereotypes about pretty much everyone!

    Although this does raise the question: would B.O.R be less of a harmful buffoon if he just left the house a bit more? (I actually hope not because I don’t want him on the streets harming real people.)

  27. The thing that gets me is that he’s telling this to Juan Williams! Who’s probably right there in the studio with him!

    Pity this wasn’t televised, because I’d kill to see the look on Williams’ face.

  28. Does he honestly think white singers get naked and dance on the tables at every restaurant they go to? Not that there are even a whole lot of rappers in (I’m from Oregon, you’ll have to excuse my ignorance of the East coast) wherever who would even be going to any particular restaurant anyway! Does Billy Graham get up in front of every crowd and preach? Who the hell goes out just to make a spectacle of themselves? Oh, and the paternalism! “… if I work hard I can make it.” What is is this, 1865?

    There’s no man, including my father and the president, whose existence I loathe more than Bill O’Reilly’s. I find it exceedingly delicious when bullshit like this makes its way out of him and into the light.

  29. I’m growing more and more attached to my theory that Bill O’Reilly is in fact a lifestyle performance artist ( kind of like this guy). It’s too depressing to consider the alternative: that a person can not only be so hateful, but also so utterly without a sense of the absurd. I almost feel sorry for someone who can’t hear how howlingly ridiculous the words coming out of his mouth sound. And I never thought I’d say this, but… poor Al Sharpton! I hope Bill was buying, at least.

  30. listen to the clip. o’reilly is not really surprised and that explains williams reaction.

    though the beginning is cut off, it’s clear there’s a context to his words. he countering a (more or less) internally created stereotype: the modern day minstrel show known as gangsta rap (which, as anyone who watches o’reilly knows, he regularly rails against), obama as not black enough, or getting good grades=acting white.

    its the racism we do to ourselves that really counts.

  31. i agree w/ o’reilly. we non-whites are just the same as whites.

    You don’t see the irony in that statement, do you.

    What do you mean, “just the same as whites”? Why is “white” the default that all “non-whites” aspire to be “just the same as”?

    Moreover: 2 ethnic groups? White and non-white?

  33. Why is “white” the default that all “non-whites” aspire to be “just the same as”?

    who said anything about aspiring?

  34. Actually I recommend listening to (or reading) the whole clip, to get it in context. After looking at it more closely, I still think O’Reilly is a massive asshole and gets a D- for sloppy stupid rhetoric… but I don’t think he was actually, literally surprised that black restaurants are just like white restaurants, which is what the excerpt in the OP makes it sound like. Which would be a reasonable intepretation if he had said all that in one go and nothing else.

  35. Speaking of the Civil War, according to the thesis of “How the Irish Became White,” the Irish became accepted as “white” by embracing anti-black racism. So maybe O’Reilly is merely reminding everyone he’s just as white as anybody else.

  38. what’s awful about this is that if you listen to the clip, it doesn’t sound like O’RLY’s surprised — it’s like he’s telling Juan Williams, ‘hey, just wanted to tell you that you dark people can be normal sometimes. i bet you thought y’all were still uncivilized. WELL. I AM HERE TO TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT.’

    …ok? thanks O’RLY?

  39. and manju — are you filled with bean paste?

    no, i’m a mango pickle manju as oppossed to the japanse type. i eat sushi almost every day though. real sushi, i’m no california roller.

    and the restaurants i go to are nothing like an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb

  40. cassie got to it before me, but I’ll still put in my two sense on this quote from exholt;

    I didn’t know he was a news polemicist who attended college and has a grad degree from Harvard, I would have thought he was another overly sheltered person whose knowledge of African-Americans came solely from consuming the most one-dimensional stereotypes the mass media has to offer.

    My experience has shown actually that growing up white upper middle, attending prep school and then Ivy League university is the perfect set-up for harboring extreme racist notions due to complete cultural isolation. After all, when one is white (don’t forget male) and middle to upper class, there is no reason to bother with knowing anything or anyone else; you are the shit. Poor whites I think are so violently racist because they yearn so deeply to feel better than someone so why not support the ole’ default order for all its worth? ‘Twas one reason why it was setup in the first place.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if O’Reilly’s entire experience with people of color is limited to a very few who have gained access to his culture and class, not the other way around.

    Oh and no Piny it isn’t the worse he’s said. I think his worse is when people were dying and suffering in New Orleans from Katrina and he stated that they deserved to die and suffer there because as they are black, they made their destiny by sitting around on welfare and refusing to fit into the Great White Scheme as he and his people see it.

    Not only was the statement patently false on its face and filtered through his lens of willful ignorance, it also operates on the assumption that his people make the rules and those who don’t follow must suffer accordingly.

    Fuck him.

  41. Oh and Al Sharpton IS THE SHIT and I’d so love to have dinner with him — anywhere. Or even get him a coffee.

  42. Stop the presses! You mean, other human beings act like human beings? Wow! Who knew? Man, I’m sure glad O’Reilly is around to tell me these things.

  43. I think he was not only surprised, but then treated this “discovery” as his chance to teach everyone else that no, we’ve all been wrong all along — black people DON’T act boorishly in restaurants, even though we all suspected as much. And he said it in his patronizing, teach-y tone of voice to act as though HE’s always known this, but he knows WE haven’t.

    And manju, I didn’t mean YOU are aspiring to be a white person. I meant many white people act as though white is the default condition that everyone, of course, wants to be.

  44. O’Reilly perfectly fits the Duke Nukem taunt “Your ass or your face, what’s the difference”. Despite close observation its hard to tell which orifice exactly is the sound originating from when he talks.

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