On his program last night, Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly applauded President Obama for speaking out about the George Zimmerman verdict but argued that Obama, and the self-proclaimed civil rights leadership have been avoiding the larger issues facing black Americans.
Instead of just focusing on how people felt about Zimmerman shooting Trayvon Martin, O'Reilly urged Obama to talk about illegitimacy, drugs, and how the violent "gangsta" culture encourages young black men to committ crimes.
The top-rated television host placed a lot of the blame for the situation on the media since he believed it was impossible to "legislate good parenting or responsible entertainment."
He placed a large amount of blame on the entertainment industry, President Obama's favorite, for promoting a lifestyle and attitude that is self-destructive:
"The entertainment industry encourages the irresponsibility by marketing a gangsta culture: hip-hop moves, trashy TV shows to impressionable children. In fact, President Obama has welcomed some of the worst offenders in that cesspool to the White House when he should be condemning what these weasels are doing. These so-called entertainers get rich while the kids who emulate their lyrics and attitude destroy themselves."
While I can't agree with everything in O'Reilly's essay, one hopes that his courageous stand against the media-censored discussion about race will inspire others to come forward. One such person who did before O'Reilly's segment aired is black author Shelby Steele who wrote an excellent essay in the Wall Street Journal yesterday entitled "The Decline of the Civil-Rights Establishment."
Let's hope that those who disagree with O'Reilly will have the guts to actually engage his points in context rather than just shouting racist in a crowded room.
A video excerpt of the segment is below, continue reading to find the transcript of the entire essay. Click here to watch the video in full.
BILL O'REILLY: President Obama and the race problem, that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."
On Friday, the president delivered surprise remarks to the press about the Trayvon Martin case and race in general. His main point? A plea for understanding.
BARACK OBAMA: There are very few African American men in this country who have not had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. [video cut] I don't want to exaggerate this but those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.
O'REILLY: And that's true. Many black Americans harbor at least some resentment for past injuries. But what President Obama surely knows is that you cannot reach a fair criminal verdict or design effective public policy that solves present problems by dwelling on the sins of the past.
"Talking Points" believes the president was correct in addressing the race issue and framing it with the Martin case. He's the leader of America and the country's talking about this.
By the way, when you hear a pundit or a politician say we should have a quote conversation about race, that means you're in for a sea of bloviating that will likely lead nowhere.
The sad truth is that, from the president on down, our leadership has no clue, no clue at all, about how to solve problems within the black community. And many are frightened to even broach the issue. That's because race hustlers and the grievance industry have intimidated the so-called conversation, turning any valid criticism of African-American culture into charges of racial bias.
So many in power simply walk away leaving millions of law-abiding African Americans to pretty much fend for themselves in violent neighborhoods. You want racism? That's racism!
Thus it is time for some straight talk and I hope the president is listening tonight because we need him to lead on this issue.
Trayvon Martin was killed because circumstances got out of control. He was scrutinized by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman because of the way he looked, not necessarily his skin color, there's no evidence of that, but because he was a stranger to Zimmerman and was dressed in clothing sometimes by street criminals.
It was wrong for Zimmerman to confront Martin based on his appearance. But the culture that we have in this country does lead to criminal profiling because young black American men are so often involved in crime. The statistics, overwhelming!
But here's the headline: Young black men commit homicides at a rate 10 times greater than whites and Hispanics combined. Presented with damning evidence like that, and like the many Holocausts in Chicago, where hundreds of African Americans are murdered each year, the civil rights industry looks the other way or makes excuses.
They blame guns, poor education, lack of jobs. Rarely do they define the problem accurately. So here it is: The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration of the African American family. Right now, about 73% of all black babies are born out of wedlock. That drives poverty and the lack of involved fathers leads to young boys crowing up resentful and unsupervised. When was the last time you saw a public service ad telling young black girls to avoid becoming pregnant? Has President Obama done such an ad? How about Jackson or Sharpton? Has the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an ad like that? How about the PC pundits who work for NBC News?
White people don't force black people to have babies out of wedlock. That's a personal decision. A decision that has devastated millions of children and led to disaster both socially and economically.
So, raised without much structure, young black men often reject education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that. Again, it is a personal decision. But the entertainment industry encourages the irresponsibility by marketing a gangsta culture: hip-hop moves, trashy TV shows to impressionable children. In fact, President Obama has welcomed some of the worst offenders in that cesspool to the White House when he should be condemning what these weasels are doing. These so-called entertainers get rich while the kids who emulate their lyrics and attitude destroy themselves.
And then there's the drug situation. Go to Detroit and ask any living on the south side of the 8 Mile Road what destroyed their city. They will tell you narcotics. They know addiction leads to crime and debasement. What do the race hustlers and limousine liberals yell about? The number of black men in prison for selling drugs. 'Oh, it's so unfair! It's a non-violent crime. And blacks are targeted!' That is one of the biggest lies in the history of this country!
The thugs who sell drugs, no matter what color they are, deserve to be put away for long periods of time. They sell poison, they sell a product that enslaves and kills. They are scum. When was the last time you heard the Congressional Black Caucus say that? How about Jackson and Sharpton? How about President Obama?
The solution to the epidemic of violent crime in poor, black neighborhoods is to actively discourage pregnancies out of marriage, to impose strict discipline in the public schools, including mandatory student uniforms, and to create a zero tolerance policy for gun and drug crimes imposing harsh mandatory prison time on the offenders. And finally, challenging the entertainment industry to stop peddling garbage. Hey listen up you greed-heads: if a kid can't speak proper English, uses the f-word in every sentence, is disrespectful in his or her manner, that child will never, never, be able to compete in the marketplace of America, never. And it has nothing to do with slavery. It has everything to do with you Hollywood people and you derelict parents. You're the ones hurting these vulnerable children.
You want a conversation? You got it. You want a better situation for blacks? Give them a chance to revive their neighborhoods and culture. Work with the good people to stop the bad people. Pumping money into the chaos does little. You can't legislate good parenting or responsible entertainment but you can fight against the madness with discipline, a firm message, and little tolerance for excuse-making.
It is now time for the African American leadership, including President Obama, to stop the nonsense. Walk away from the world of victimization and grievance. And lead the way out of this mess.
