The Washington Post placed the O’Reilly soul-food scandalette on the front of the Style section on Thursday. Paul Farhi’s report provided some context to O’Reilly radio-show remarks on the improvement in race relations, but CNN’s Rick Sanchez implied that O’Reilly thinks white women are endangered by sexually overpowering black men. Or at least, that’s what comes through when you use the word "Mandingo," a 1975 movie about a white woman having an affair with a black slave:
Sanchez, in a phone interview, said O'Reilly is perpetuating racism by using "the Mandingo argument" against black rappers. "The idea [is] that there's a big, bad African American out there that we all need protection from," he said. "It's a dangerous way of looking at racial relations. The African American community is extremely complex. The thinking that black culture is confined to guys sticking their underwear out is just wrong, and many African Americans resent it."
O’Reilly’s camp surely will object that this is exactly what O’Reilly was saying, that black culture is more than gangsta rappers. Earlier in Farhi’s story, he reported O'Reilly also described going to an Anita Baker concert at Radio City Music Hall at which "the blacks [patrons] were well dressed." He added, "This is what white America doesn't know. They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg."
If anything, whites could take offense at O’Reilly for being cast as culturally clueless. Surely, white Americans know that their black friends and neighbors dress up, and often love Anita Baker and John Legend and jazz (just like I do). What liberals object to is that anyone would dare to take offense at gangsta rap, which they often promote for its "authenticity," as poetry of the streets. Never mind how disgusting the lyrics are, and never mind what kind of role models they suggest for black children – not to mention white children, who are often very enthusiastic rap consumers.
