Bill O’Reilly, apparently, needed to further prove his racist tendencies, so he went on a bitter, hate-fueled, rant about the deceased Michael Jackson and Jackson’s grieving fans. Granted, the media coverage has been extreme, but what O’Reilly says is pretty disgusting in this debate with Columbia University professor Dr. Marc Lamont Hill…
O’REILLY: Okay, then why is he being held up by the African-American community as a pillar of black America when he blanches his skin? [...]
But answer me this, if he is such a black American icon, why did he have his kids with white men?
HILL: That’s a personal matter. That doesn’t make him less black. There’s no blackness meter here. You don’t become less black when you have a white kid.
O’REILLY: You don’t become an African-American icon when you do something like that.
HILL: No, you become an African-American icon for producing the greatest music and being the greatest entertainer ever for being extraordinary humanitarian and for.
O’REILLY: No. You just become an American icon for that, not a black American icon. [...]
HILL: It’s not — oh, he is an American idol — icon. He is quintessentially American, but he’s also undeniably black. You can’t take black from him just because he has white kids.
Who the hell is Bill O’Reilly to tell anyone who can or cannot be their icons? He seems to think he has some right, or ability, to speak for black people, regardless of whether or not race was a factor in the memorial(s) and tribute(s). The only person who made this a racial issue was Bill O’Reilly.