Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Even by O'Reilly's standards, this is absurd. He went and had a meal at Sylvia's, a famous restaurant in Harlem, with Al Sharpton and he was shocked - shocked! - to find out that not all black people are gangbangers and pimps. On his radio show he said:
"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 in the show, while discussing rap culture with Juan Williams, he returned to his astonishing epiphany:
"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."
Congratulations, Bill. It took you half a century to figure out that Flava Flav does not represent the behavior of all black people. Next week perhaps you'll learn that every Jewish person doesn't act like Jackie Mason and every white person doesn't act like Larry the Cable Guy.
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Maybe he'll stumble upon the fact that all atheists aren't communists hell-bent on the destruction of America...
(Anybody know where to find an atheist restaurant in an atheist neighborhood?)
Posted by: Ben | September 25, 2007 9:47 AM
Did he mention it was the best fried chicken he'd ever had?
Posted by: kehrsam | September 25, 2007 9:50 AM
Wow. What a complacently ignorant human being. I guess its not surprising that this is a guy who downplays the existence of racism in this country.
Posted by: Julian | September 25, 2007 9:52 AM
It reminded me a little of a bit in the early seasons of NYPD Blue when Lieutenant Fancy or Darling or whatever his name was took Sipowicz to lunch in some restaurant in Harlem, and pointed out that they served him just like anyone else, even though most of them probably hated his guts because he was a white cop. And then asked him to imagine what it would feel like if he was black and they were white.
Posted by: Sanjiv Sarwate | September 25, 2007 9:57 AM
Damn. O'Reilly never ceases to come up with another reason to cement himself as a gigantic jackass.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | September 25, 2007 10:00 AM
I don't care who you are, that is funny right there.
Posted by: carlsonjok | September 25, 2007 10:01 AM
Wikipedia says O'Reilly is about 58 years old. He lived most of his life in New York City. How the heck has he lived so long, in one of the most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse cities in the world, and not encountered enough black people to get beyond the ethnic stereotypes he sees on TV?
Posted by: NonyNony | September 25, 2007 10:07 AM
Did O'Reilly get to the point that the majority of buyers of rap records are suburban white youths?
Posted by: gwangung | September 25, 2007 10:20 AM
Does anybody have a clip of this episode? Those quotes must have been taken out of context, or maybe he was being sarcastic. I'm sorry, but not even O'Reilly is that crazy. That, and Fox, for all its faults, is very good about being ethnically sensitive.
Posted by: Brandon | September 25, 2007 10:32 AM
And Republicans get mad when you point out the racism in their stances. I especially had one furious with me when I explained that, whether they like it or not, neo-Nazis and KKK members tend to agree with conservative policies.
Posted by: dogmeatib | September 25, 2007 11:14 AM
Does anybody have a clip of this episode? Those quotes must have been taken out of context, or maybe he was being sarcastic. I'm sorry, but not even O'Reilly is that crazy. That, and Fox, for all its faults, is very good about being ethnically sensitive.
Take a look at the link Ed provided to the Media Matters site, they have an audio link of what he said as well as a transcript.
Posted by: Halcyon | September 25, 2007 11:19 AM
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | September 25, 2007 11:21 AM
Once again we encounter the influence of small sample size. The narrow minded are especially prone to nonrandom sampling.
Posted by: Les Lane | September 25, 2007 11:23 AM
...by which he apparently means that Bill O'Reilly doesn't realize that black people aren't like that?
Posted by: Gretchen | September 25, 2007 11:31 AM
As typical of the "narrow minded," you have taken this completely out of context and used a few excerpts to make O'Reilly look like a buffoon. However unfortunate, it does appear that a large percentage of "white" America has had their world view corrupted by how various racial groups are portrayed by the media.
Posted by: Sandy | September 25, 2007 11:55 AM
Sandy,
"As typical of the "narrow minded," you have taken this completely out of context and used a few excerpts to make O'Reilly look like a buffoon."
Care to elaborate? What else could he have meant by "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."
Was O'Reilly joking? Was he satirizing racist thinking? What other context explains his astonishment that black people in a restaurant act like, you know, people?
Or are you blaming the media for O'Reilly's inaccurate worldview? Of all people, I thought Papa Bear didn't trust the libral secular progressive controlled media anyway?
Posted by: MyPetSlug | September 25, 2007 12:34 PM
As typical of the "narrow minded," you have taken this completely out of context and used a few excerpts to make O'Reilly look like a buffoon. However unfortunate, it does appear that a large percentage of "white" America has had their world view corrupted by how various racial groups are portrayed by the media.
It's not very hard to make O'Reilly look like a buffoon. He typically does all the work for you.
Posted by: daenku32 | September 25, 2007 12:36 PM
As typical of the "narrow minded," you have taken this completely out of context and used a few excerpts to make O'Reilly look like a buffoon. However unfortunate, it does appear that a large percentage of "white" America has had their world view corrupted by how various racial groups are portrayed by the media.
Actually, no. Anyone who has watched more than ten minutes of O'Reilly has already seen him look like a buffoon. The guy is amazed that the stereotype that he portrays regularly about the African American community isn't true. I especially love how he talks about "white America" as if he has the authority to speak for all white Americans. I've spent lots of time in white America, black America, and Hispanic America, contrary to the small minded bigotry of jackasses like O'Reilly, I'm not shocked or surprised to find out that they aren't that different from one another.
O'Reilly is an idiot. Anyone who thinks he has something valid to say aspires to idiocy.
Posted by: dogmeatib | September 25, 2007 12:38 PM
MyPetSlug - it really is less incriminating in context. Check it out for yourself. It's still far more incriminating than Sandy implies - he still looks like a buffoon - it's just incriminating in a different way than the bare quotes suggest.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | September 25, 2007 1:03 PM
Yes, these folks are so narrow-minded that they're pointing to the transcript of the entire show.
I note that you, yourself, are not addressing the criticisms as a whole...
Posted by: gwangung | September 25, 2007 1:08 PM
Halcyon wrote:
Fox, for all its faults, is very good about being ethnically sensitive.
That's a good one. Hilarious, even.
Posted by: tomh | September 25, 2007 1:29 PM
Wow. Being from Georgia, I grew up dining with African Americans and even frequenting African American restaurants. (Nothing is better than a Meat and Three.) The fact that this appears to have been O'Reilly's first time in an African American restaurant makes me wonder how integrated the dining is in NYC and everywhere else he has lived.
Posted by: Reed A. Cartwright | September 25, 2007 1:58 PM
NonyNony -
How the heck has he lived so long, in one of the most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse cities in the world, and not encountered enough black people to get beyond the ethnic stereotypes he sees on TV?
I'm going to answer that one with another stereotype I see on TV. New Yorkers don't really live in a huge diverse city - they live in one of the several hundred (or thousand?) tiny little neighborhoods that make up the city, seldom straying farther than walking distance from their apartment/condo/brownstone/slum/penthouse (depending on finacial status). They ARE forced to mix on the subway (unless they're fairly well-off) - but they keep their nose in the paper and ignore everyone around them.
I have no idea how accurate that might be, but I see it not only on TV, but implicit in the subtext of blogs by New Yorkers. I particularly note Waiter Rant and The Barmaid Blog. To bring it back to the topic at hand - how often does Billo really interact with neighborhoods where the local majority is a national minority? The limo from his condo, to the studio, to a posh restaurant or bar, then back to the condo probably doesn't pick up passengers in Harlem.
Posted by: BobApril | September 25, 2007 2:10 PM
Ginger,
You're right, After listening to the audio, it's not as bad as I originally thought. It's more like someone pointing out the obvious and thinking they've made some profound insight. Not racist, but telling that he thinks this is important enough to point out to people.
Posted by: MyPetSlug | September 25, 2007 2:22 PM
Hoo boy. CNN has an article entitled: "Bill O'Reilly: Blacks starting to think" I can't watch it but.... that headline is sort of enough for me already.
And BobApril... as someone who lived in New York for several years, that isn't my experience. There's lots of stuff all over the city, from resturants to galleries and so forth, that takes people out of their particular neighborhoods. At the very least, you have plenty of time to see and interact with people of all races.
Posted by: Bad | September 25, 2007 2:53 PM
Were his comments specifically racist?
Do they show a deeper, racial ignorance within O'Reilly himself? Most definitely. African Americans are starting to think for themselves? That is utterly idiotic. To make statements that rap artists dominate the perception of African American culture? Pure ignorance.
O'Reilly has presented African American culture through negative stereotypes and now is surprised when he is proven to be, yet again, a moron?
Posted by: dogmeatib | September 25, 2007 3:10 PM
There was supposed to be a [shrug] after this part:
Were his comments specifically racist?
The website and I are not getting along today...
Posted by: dogmeatib | September 25, 2007 3:11 PM
Could O'Lielly get any more ridiculous? Of course he could. He's an ignorant, bigoted, raving, unprincipled egomaniac who might say any of a number of even more offensive and moronic things at any time. Could he say something so ignorant, bigoted and unprincipled that it would surprise me? No.
Posted by: ben | September 25, 2007 4:37 PM
Could someone please stab him in the throat? Repeatedly?
Posted by: Jonathan | September 25, 2007 4:58 PM
I suppose, in all fairness, I should point out that he's claimed "there was no racial intent in what I said", and of course it's all a sleazy attack by the vile assassins at Media Matters.
I might spend time wondering how accurately quoting someone counts as a hatchet job, but meh.
Posted by: Skemono | September 25, 2007 5:29 PM
And did he go on to say, "Some of my best friends are African American"?
Posted by: gwangung | September 25, 2007 5:35 PM
When said quote is taken out of its context in order to make it more unflattering to it's source. Like selectively quoting O'Reilly's fairly inoffensive but still dumb complaints about gansta rap reinforcing negative stereotypes to make O'Reilly look racist? O'Reilly is predictably full of crap, but Media Matters is a bunch of partisan hacks that exists for the purpose of cultivating freigned outrage where it is politically expedient, just like the rightwing "media watchdog" counterparts it was created in the mold of. Neither should be trusted in any capacity.
On a more substantiative matter, based on my experiences in the midwest, I think O'Reilly is unfortuanately right in that a good chunk of white Americans do hold those sort of stereotypes about urban African American culture, especially among those with little exposure to urban areas. The attribution of them to gansta rap is absurd on the grounds of chronology alone, but it isn't difficult to see how it'd reinforce them; look at how people freaked out when taking "satanic" heavy metal too seriously.
Posted by: MattXIV | September 25, 2007 6:35 PM
Providing a lengthy transcript is taking something out of context now?
Posted by: Skemono | September 25, 2007 7:17 PM
Now now, let's not be too hard on ol' Bill. I mean, get this! Last week I learned (I'm still reeling at this revelation, let me tell you) that NOT all Germans are Visigoths!
Wow! Who'da thunk?? I just can't get over that! *shrugging incredulously*
Posted by: Tyler | September 25, 2007 7:30 PM
Having read and listened to the segment several times now, one of the funniest parts is that BillO thinks coconut shrimp is "soul food."
Even though? Got your bigotry right here.
Posted by: Pieter B | September 25, 2007 7:38 PM
I'm another New Yorker...I think most of us eat at different ethnic restaurants fairly often; they're one of the best things about the city. But it's certainly possible to avoid them if you're completely terrified, and O'Reilly seems to be the sort of person who can't tell a falafel from a loofah. (
Could he say something so ignorant, bigoted and unprincipled that it would surprise me? No.
I used to think that way.
Then I found out that he's mortally offended by the phrase "Happy Holidays", and he thinks that anyone who says it is a front-line solider in the "War on Christmas". That one surprised me, and I imagine that he'll be able to surprise me again.
Posted by: chaos_engineer | September 25, 2007 8:12 PM
I think the big question is: Is this experience going to change O'Reilly's behavior? I am willing to bet my next paycheck that the answer will be no. His ultimate rationalization is going to be that the people at Sylvia's are nothing like other black folk because they seemed like decent people.
Posted by: wrpd | September 25, 2007 8:25 PM
Maybe Colbert will be wearing a Klan robe tonight.
Posted by: shrike | September 25, 2007 9:43 PM
Am I the only one who gets the idea that Billo is surprised that Tony Soprano doesn't order a hit every time he visits the Olive Garden?
Posted by: kehrsam | September 25, 2007 10:46 PM
It's amazing that he didn't comment to Juan Williams on how remarkable it is that the hadicapped can live real lives just like everybody else.
Posted by: jufulu, FCD | September 26, 2007 12:17 AM
Bill was, however, disappointed by the absence of boiled missionary from the menu.
Posted by: Ian Gould | September 26, 2007 9:16 AM
As a New Yorker -- specifically a Brooklynite, which may make a difference -- I've got to point out that the neighborhoods are becoming more and more mixed. I live in a predominantly Jewish and substantially Orthodox Jewish neighborhood -- the sort of place where there are a dozen places selling succahs for this period. But there are four small Pakistani grocery stores in the neighborhood, and when you see the local high school let out, you see an astounding and delightful mixture of ethnic groups walking to the bus stop. (And walking together, not self-segregated.)
But my favorite story is something I see a little further South along Coney Island Avenue, an Islamic Cultural Center sandwiched between a Jewish Day Care Center and a small kosher grocery store. (This is about a block up from the local Southeast Asian enclave, btw.)
Posted by: Prup aka Jim Benton | September 26, 2007 10:56 AM
Posted by: llDayo | September 26, 2007 11:47 AM
Ed's blog is quoted in a NY Times online blog about this incident, but I don't see any credit given.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/bill-oreilly-talks-about-race/index.html?hp
Posted by: Paul | September 26, 2007 11:48 AM
Bill O'Reilly told me all Asians are trained in Kung-Fu.
Posted by: daenku32 | September 26, 2007 3:15 PM
Am I the only one who thinks listening to the full audio clip that's available on the site Ed linked to actually makes O'Reilly look worse? Taken in isolation, one might come off with the impression that O'Reilly was lecturing white racists about how not all African-Americans behave like those who are foul-mouthed and generally misbehaving rappers, giving Sylvia's restaurant as a specific example. In the full context of the clip, however, it seems (at least to me) that O'Reilly is stating that he is surprised at how the atmosphere at a predominantly African-American-frequented restaurant is, because he expects blacks to behave badly due to the past racism inflicted against them (or something like that).
Posted by: daniel rotter | September 27, 2007 10:47 PM
Stereotyping is very common amongst people who've never experienced a different culture, which is one reason I feel everyone should spend 6 months living in a different country.
There's also a lot more subtle racism on TV and in film. How often do you see a portrayal of a racially-mixed relationship when it is not part of the plot? This is something I've noticed as different between American and UK adverts, although perhaps it is changing.
Posted by: Richard Simons | October 1, 2007 8:35 AM
Maybe he was parodying?
I'm from Australia so I don't really know him other than from his appearance in the Jon Stewart show. On that occasion at least he seemed to have a sense of humor about him.
Posted by: TC | October 1, 2007 8:48 AM