The Gum Tree for 2007 September 26

Bill O'Reilly was having a conversation about race relations with Juan Williams yesterday on his radio program. CNN picked up that story and took his comments totally out of context. They can be found here at CNN. Worse yet, it completely misses the point of what Bill was saying, and even claimed Bill was affirming something that he specifically criticized: namely that stereotypes are unhealthy, especially comming in the form of MTV rappers who dress and walk around like clowns and exploit just about every bad minority stereotype there is (e.g. the violent, misogynistic, lazy, unintelligent minority). A commentor for CNN even went on to criticize Bill for criticizing that kind of stereotyping of black culture--amazing! To hear the whole conversation in which Bill and Juan were talking about race relations, go here to Bill O'Reilly's website. The response by Juan Williams to CNN's intellectual dishonesty can be found here, and he is livid. Tomorrow, I hear that Bill is going to have Al Sharpton on his program to talk more about it. I think Al will help give more context to the 'incident in question.' There is a failure to address certain pathological parts of culture; including black culture (i.e. rappers, and the detrimental influence they are, especially for young black men). Of course I am an equal-opportunity social critic who doesn't spare parts of white culture, for example, evangelical christians who exclude others, are sectarian, and who fail to properly train the minds of their children (let's face it, plenty of slavery and Jim Crow's proponents and those 'cheerleaders' who protested the integration of Southern schools were evangelical 'christians'). That social criticism could also be leveled against the Lohan, Spears, Hilton unholy stereotypical triad of dysfunctional young women. In any case, I think it is unproductive to be blind to the harmful effects of any culture simply because a political movement's powerbase is based upon parts of that culture. That is one reason why I may never enter politics.