Bill O’Reilly did a powerful “Talking Points Memo” last night that everyone should be talking about. Funny, though, that the media has not mentioned a word about it. Once you watch it, you’ll know why.
O’Reilly blamed the gutless leadership of blacks and white liberals, including and maybe especially our president, for never addressing grave problems facing the black community, especially illegitimacy, crime, violence, and drug use. He called on President Obama to take the lead in an effort to save future generations of black children from the same dreadful fate to which three or four decades of closed-mouth, spineless leadership has sentenced their mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles:
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, it’s disgraceful, it’s disrespectful — it’s 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.
I made points similar to O’Reilly’s about 20 years ago at a lunch with a prominent black political figure in Durham (I won’t embarrass him by naming him). After I had finished with my comments, he said, “Well, Jon, I can say those things, but YOU can’t,” meaning that as a white person it was not my place. “But you DON’T say those things,” was my response.
And he still hasn’t. And neither have any of his colleagues. There’s enough blame to go around, though. Nearly 30 years ago I proposed a series at The Herald-Sun The Durham Sun on illegitimacy in the black community in Durham. I had seen some startling statistics and felt that they needed exposure. My editor and publisher, however, didn’t want to touch it.
I often wonder if running that series would have done any good. Probably not. The paper would just have been accused of racism by black leaders in Durham, which is what my editor and publisher at the time feared would happen. Delegations of black leaders would demand meetings with our editorial board, our publisher, and newsroom executives. Lots of noise would be made and nothing would get done about any problems.
Which is exactly the what O’Reilly was getting at last night.
