Bill O'Reilly Defends White Privilege, White Power
Media Matters quotes O’Reilly from his May 16 broadcast:
O’REILLY: Now in 1986, President Reagan thought he could solve the [immigration] problem by granting about 3 million illegal aliens amnesty. The New York Times was in heaven, editorializing back then, quote, “The new law won’t work miracles but it will induce most employers to pay attention, to turn off the magnets, to slow the tide.” Of course, just the opposite happened. But the Times hasn’t learned a thing. That’s because the newspaper and many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed. [emphasis added]
Isn’t it interesting that Bill O’Reilly acknowledges that there is a “white power structure” which is in control of America? This contradicts the popular conservative line that racism is dead and is no longer a serious political or social issue anymore. If there is a “white power structure” controlling America, Bill O’Reilly is part of it — so wouldn’t he realize that he can’t be regarded as an impartial observe on the issue?
According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will. This can only happen if demographics change in America. An open-border policy and the legalization of millions of Hispanic illegal aliens would deeply affect the political landscape in America. That’s what The New York Times and many others on the left want. They might get it. And that’s the “Memo.” [emphasis added]
When we remember the fact that just about all Hispanics coming into America are Christian, we are faced with the realization that the only difference between the current “White Christian” control of America and the changes which O’Reilly is complaining about isn’t Christianity, but race — the changes which O’Reilly objects to is the prospect that the overall racial makeup of America will change from white to brown.
As Alex Koppelman points out, this is consistent with comments from John Gibson, also of Fox News:
John Gibson ... warned last week of the demographic trends in the United States: “Twenty-five years and the majority population is Hispanic,” he said. His solution? “The rest of you: Get busy. Make babies.” [...]
[T]his isn’t the first time that Gibson has warned his viewers about the Hispanic birth rate. Mainly, though, he does it in the context of “reconquista,” a theory, spread almost entirely by white supremacist groups and based almost entirely in myth, that Mexicans have a secret plan to take over parts of the southwestern U.S.
“There has been much discussion about the so-called reconquista,” Gibson said early last month, “which is the retaking of old Mexican territories which are now part of the United States by pure birth rate. We hear people saying we’re going to take it back, and that will eventually color the immigration debate in a way that Mexican-Americans and Hispanic immigrants will not want.” (By the way, notice how Gibson never specifies who those “people saying we’re going to take it back” are? That’s because they don’t exist -- as I’ve said before, reconquista is a fantasy that exists in the minds of white supremacists, not mainstream Mexicans, who show no signs of having any such designs.)
Therefore, while O’Reilly (and Fox News generally) is certainly defending the power and privileges of Christians, something which he has done in the past, he is also explicitly defending the power and privileges of Whites — White Power and White Privilege in America. We should not ignore the fact, though, that defenses of both White Privilege and of Christian Privilege so often go hand-in-hand. They are not presented here together by accident: White Privilege and Christian Privilege are mutually reinforcing ideologies of unjust power wielded at the expense of minorities.
On this same broadcast, Bill O’Reilly talked with Michelle Malkin — something which might not seem related, but Malkin has a known history of associating with and supporting White Supremacists herself. Alex Koppelman explains:
Malkin, a conservative columnist, blogger (the most popular conservative blogger, according to Technorati and Truth Laid Bear) and Fox News contributor, has some affiliations of her own, some skeletons in the closet O’Reilly never bothered to mention -- skeletons like VDARE.com.
Named for Virginia Dare, the first white person born in the New World, the site has been named by the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. ... [T]he site is dedicated to pushing the kind of pseudo-science the Nazis could have only dreamed of using to support their racial fantasies. Forget phrenology: VDARE spends its time flogging books that purport to prove that the average IQ of sub-Saharan Africans is 67 -- below the accepted standard criteria for a diagnosis of mental retardation.
Malkin’s association with VDARE and it’s racism are not incidental:
Malkin’s ties to the site are legion: it regularly prints her column, while she employs one of its writers, Juan Mann, as the principal writer of her “Immigration Blog” and lists the site on her blogroll. And it’s not as if Malkin isn’t well aware of the criticism, both of the site and her ties to it -- in a post on her blog in September 2004, she noted that “my friend Peter Brimelow [the founder of VDARE] observes that some people apparently think linking to VDARE is tantamount to a hate crime.”
These people's support for groups like VDARE are effectively an endorsement for their racist views. This is how extremism and racism become more mainstream in conservative circles where racism would otherwise be absent (or at least suppressed enough): purveyors of racism are treated like decent, mainstream voices who should be listened to.
In recent years, Republican and conservative leaders have managed to eliminate a good portion of the overt racism in their ranks, but all that progress is being undermined now. Part of the reason for the growing acceptability of defenses of White Power and White Privilege may be the experience which these same people have had in defending Christian Power and Christian Privilege.
A lot of time and effort is expended in defending unjust privileges as if they were mandated by fairness and without the media noticing the contradiction. Because the two serve to reinforce each other, and because each is so similar in nature and structure to the other, it's not surprising the successful use of one could lead to growth in the use of the other.
Quick Poll: Is racism becoming more acceptable and influential in conservative circles?
- No, racism is only accepted by extremists.
- No, racism has always been influential in conservative circles - it's just more visible today.
- Yes, racism had declined in influence but is growing again and become more open.
- I don't know.
- I don't care.
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Comments
O Rileys views would not be allowed on mainstream television channels in Britain Indeed, it is extemely unlikely that Fox News would be allowed to broadcast if it attempted to open a television news channel based in this country. This is not censorship, it is common decency. Why dont you state clearly what the likes of Robertson, O Riley, and Copeland are-they are Christian fascists. I am suprised that you have not picked up on another example of what happens when Evangelical fascists gain control of the local government apparatus in the United States.In the town of Black Jack, Missouri, a young black couple have been told by the local authority that they will be evicted from their home because they are not married. The couple, who have three children, have been together for thirteen years. It appears that this counts for nothing as far as the local ruling bigots are concerned. It does not matter that this is a loving family that they are trying to break up-no, all that matters to these local fundamentalist tyrants is; you must be married. You could be a child molester or a wife beater, and there are plenty of those in bigoted religious homes, as long as you are married is all that matters. Here is an example of what these mad people will do if they ever gain outright power at a national level.
What’s so weird about that is, Michelle Malkin looks Asian to me. (I think she was adopted as a kid.)
Yes, Malkin is from the Philippines…
The TRUTH is that the power stucture in the USA IS white and cristian as it has always been. And it has served us well as it has in europe. I can’t think of any other countries government in the americas that has done as well as ours. We have it pretty damn good here, and thats why people are flooding into the country in record numbers. I myself don’t care for religion, but it doesn’t bother me at all. The only reason i see people so upset about religion is that they don’t like rules, and religion is about setting rules.
BTW, I know athiests who are racists. Does that mean your whole argument is moot?
Do you realize that you yourselves are fascists?
Why don’t you go after a truly evil religion like islam. Then you can educate people on how silly religion truly is.
“I can’t think of any other countries government in the americas that has done as well as ours.”
You assume that America has done well simply because white Christians have been in charge. Can you support this?
“The only reason i see people so upset about religion is that they don’t like rules”
Then you haven’t thought about it very much.
“BTW, I know athiests who are racists. Does that mean your whole argument is moot?”
No. Care to explain why you think it might be?
“Do you realize that you yourselves are fascists?”
No. Care to support your claim?
“Why don’t you go after a truly evil religion like islam.”
Islam isn’t any more evil than Christianity.
“Then you can educate people on how silly religion truly is.”
Oh, I can do that with Christianity as well.
Funny how someone who makes so many accusations and signs themselves as “truth” has to do so anonymously.
‘truth’, try posting in one go rather than four.
You know what? You’re right, I don’t like rules, but I do respect ones that make sense. I respect rules that have a purpose. A purposeful rule is one that serves us in return for our following it. We agree not to steal, others agree not to steal from us, those who don’t get jailed. I wouldn’t want to steal in the first place as I’d like get in some doo for it, and it’s a good thing too or I wouldn’t know the value of hard work.
It’s more than rules though, it’s freedom. I don’t like to be forced to behave a certain way, value certain things, or believe certain things, when they do not correlate to reality. They limit our potential.
I know bodybuilders who are ***, doesn’t mean bodybuilding doesn’t kick ***. Same applies to atheists. Atheism and racism are mutually exclusive issues. I’d dare say you’d find more among the religious since they tend to be dumber, more closeminded and hateful, but hey…
The more science-minded atheists who look past overgeneralized eugenic discrimination can see the futility in racist views.
Like it or not European-Americans built this country. European-Americans established this country based on moral values and principles like decency and honor. All but one of the founding fathers who signed the Constitution were slave owners. It was never meant to be all inclusive. Blacks seem to be trying to take over something that they did not work to build, as they most usually do. Were they to succeed,chances are it would go in to ruins as does the majority of things that blacks are a part of. Blacks and their Jewish rulers are what is wrong with this country today. This country was fine until the 60’s when the whites (out of their normal predisposition to do the noble thing) tried to give equal rights to a people who had shown no reason for equal rights to be given them. Yes unfortunately to those who would disagree, the reality is: Whites had the power to give or withhold rights, since they built this country and established it’s laws. People of Africa never had advanced civilizations, nor do they now. Whites are now paying for their kindness, and respect for what they thought was humanity. I suppose the reason that African countries are 3d world countries is the White people’s fault too? One value that the majority of blacks do not seem to share with the rest of civilized society, is responsibility. Another would be the work ethic. If the blacks had the innovativeness, the smarts and the work ethic to build something for themselves, it would have happened in African countries long ago. The Europeans were building masterpieces of architecture in the 15th century. The Europeans were developing and mastering classic music masterpieces, Bach, Beethoven. The Europeans were the first and foremost philosophers and thinkers and were the first on record to develop the concept of democracy. What were the African nations involved in? Selling their own people into slavery for one, which is a modern day predecessor of the “pimps”. Now will you blame the white race for that? I suppose Whites were responsible for the poor economic conditions in Africa, even before they got there. I’m not a proponent of Christianity, I question why a “God” would allow my brother to be murdered by a black. I do believe in morality, principles, like honesty, responsibility, diligence and self suffisciency. My guess is that no one here will agree with my views, simply because most “atheists” that I know of are simply looking for a way to excuse them selves from morality or personal responsibility,and are liberals who have think they have come up with a way to ridicule all that is considered moral or right. Now to those who would question “What is moral or right?” I simply ask , Is there a society on the face of the planet who would say that stealing is right? Would you feel that it was right for someone to steal your belongings? People for the most part, inherently know what is right, what is good, what is life-affirming and what is just. I don’t know if these are “God” given, or just a part of normal healthy human behavior, but they undeniably exist.
By Oz “I simply ask , Is there a society on the face of the planet who would say that stealing is right?”
Theft by one tribe from another is a time honored tradition. American Indians stole horses, New Guinea natives steal pigs, Europeans stole a whole continent and the early Israelis took Caanan.
“People for the most part, inherently know what is right, what is good, what is life-affirming and what is just. I don’t know if these are “God” given, or just a part of normal healthy human behavior, but they undeniably exist.”
If moral behavior is “just a part of normal healthy human behavior” then, since you exclude God from its origin, it is of an ‘atheist’ origin and it disqualifies your earlier statement degrading atheists.
Like it or not European-Americans built this country…. [etc, etc] Comment by oz — April 19, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so much ignorance of history and standard written English displayed in such a compact space.