COTTON COMES TO HARLEM:THE O'REILLY FACTOR

It seems as if talking pundithead Bill O'Reilly has finally gotten himself into some trouble he can't get out of. The right wing apologist, often known for his foolish off the cuff remarks, went to dinner in Harlem with Rev. Al Sharpton and apparently observed blacks in their natural habitat, a famous soul food rectaurant, Sylvia's, owned and run by blacks. He was amazed that blacks can sit down to dinner, order food properly, eat with their knives and forks, and don't have to shout m'fer I want some more tea. Imagine that.

"I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City," he said. "It was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks [and has a] primarily black patronship. It was the same. And that's really what this society is really all about now here in the U.S.A. There's no difference."

He later added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, '[Expletive], I want some more ice tea.' It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there ordering and having fun and there wasn't any craziness at all."

He also didn't know that blacks also dressed and acted well when they go to concerts.

On the same program last week, 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."

This is what white America doesn't know? This would be slightly amusing if if wasn't just the biggest piece of nonsense going. I didn't think anomalies like this still existed in the world the way they did when I was growing up. I knew plenty of whites with this attitude, and O'Reilly's not that much older than me. As for his apologists, the man is simply a racist and everyone knows it but him. If they don't know it then let me tell them; when a white man basically says that he didn't know that most African Americans didn't act like backwards African jungle bunnies, actually knowing how to get their feed on using a knife and fork, then he is racist. No if, ands, or buts. Racist.