O'Reilly claimed to have exposed the "hidden agenda" behind the immigrant rights movement: "the browning of America"
SUMMARY: On his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly claimed that on the April 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, guest Charles Barron, a New York City councilman, had revealed the "hidden agenda" behind the current immigration debate. O'Reilly told his listeners: "[T]he bottom line is Charles Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out 'white privilege' and to have the browning of America." But in the April 11 interview, Barron at no point claimed that he and other advocates for immigrant rights are motivated by a desire to force white Americans into the minority -- despite O'Reilly's repeated efforts to provoke such an acknowledgment.
During the April 12 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor, host Bill O'Reilly claimed that on the April 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, guest Charles Barron, a New York City councilman, had revealed the "hidden agenda" behind the current immigration debate. O'Reilly told his listeners: "[T]he bottom line is Charles Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out 'white privilege' and to have the browning of America." O'Reilly suggested that this "hidden agenda" included plans to let "people who live in the Caribbean, people who live in Africa and Asia ... walk in and become citizens immediately." He then congratulated himself for exposing the "underside" of this issue: "[Y]ou know, we got it out; we got it out. Now it's out there in play." Further, he commended Barron for being "man enough to admit it."
But in the April 11 interview, Barron at no point claimed that he and other advocates for immigrant rights are motivated by a desire to force white Americans into the minority -- despite O'Reilly's repeated efforts to provoke such an acknowledgment. O'Reilly asked: "[Y]ou'd like the changing America to be -- the dominant people would be people of color? ... But you want it to happen, do you not? ... Do you not want it to happen? ... [T]hat's the bottom line on it, isn't it, Charles? ... You want a totally different country." But Barron responded that this was not the bottom line. To the contrary, he argued that the growing minority population is instead driving the backlash on immigrants: "You fear that ... your white privilege will no longer exist. ... And that's why you have problems with immigration. Because it's the browning of America. ... You want to stay in control. You want to stay in power."
Moreover, at no point in the interview did Barron advocate allowing foreigners from across the globe to enter the United States freely and immediately earn citizenship.
As the interview ended, O'Reilly declared, "[N]ow everyone knows what your true agenda is ... Now we know." Barron responded, "The true agenda is to treat all immigrants fairly as they treated your ancestors"
The following day, O'Reilly told his Radio Factor listeners, "Sometimes in an interview, you get lucky." He then described Barron's purported "hidden agenda": to "overthrow ... the white privileged Christian nation," to institute an "open border where Hispanics, people who live in the Caribbean, people who live in Africa and Asia can walk in and become citizens immediately," and to "have the browning of America."
From the April 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Then why did so many people want to come here if we're so bad?
BARRON: Because there are places where they can do good here, if we allow for that to happen and we create change.
O'REILLY: Change?
BARRON: Change.
O'REILLY: So that means a changing America. You want a changing America.
BARRON: Of course America has to change.
O'REILLY: Right.
BARRON: Yes
O'REILLY: And you'd like the changing America to be -- the dominant people would be people of color?
BARRON: That's going to happen anyway, whether you like it or not.
O'REILLY: But you want it to happen, do you not?
BARRON: That's going to happen anyway.
O'REILLY: Do you not want it to happen?
BARRON: That's going to happen whether you or I want it or not.
O'REILLY: And that's the bottom line on it, isn't it, Charles?
BARRON: No.
O'REILLY: Yeah, it is.
BARRON: The bottom line is that you fear your white --
O'REILLY: I don't fear anything.
BARRON: -- your white privilege will no longer exist.
O'REILLY: I just want the rule the law.
BARRON: Rule of law.
O'REILLY: You want a totally different country.
BARRON: It's going to happen whether you like it or not, whether I want it or not. Look at New York City. The majority of the people in New York City are people of color.
O'REILLY: That -- hey, Charles --
BARRON: And that's why you have problems with immigration.
O'REILLY: And that's why I love you.
BARRON: Because of the browning of America.
O'REILLY: That's why I love you.
BARRON: You want to stay in control.
O'REILLY: Because now --
BARRON: You want to stay in power.
O'REILLY: I don't care about control at all.
BARRON: Yes, you do.
O'REILLY: But I love you, because now everyone knows what the true agenda is. That's what it is.
BARRON: The true agenda is to treat all immigrants fairly as they treated your ancestors.
O'REILLY: I gotta go. Charles Barron, everybody. Now we know.
From the April 12 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor:
O'REILLY: You know, sometimes in an interview you get lucky. And our goal is always to expose the underside of every, every issue we cover. Because there is usually a hidden agenda. Now, nowhere is this more apparent than in the illegal immigration debate. There is a hidden agenda in this debate that no one will tell you -- press won't tell you, politicians won't tell you, the illegal immigrants themselves won't tell you that. But there is. And it's vitally important to the country. Now, last night on the television side, we had New York City Councilman Charles Barron on the program. I hope you saw that. If you didn't, we're gonna play you the highlights of the interview in a couple of seconds.
[...]
O'REILLY: All right. There you go. White privilege. The browning of America. There it is. There it is. Bottom line on this? That's what it is. Change the complexion of America. Have an open border where Hispanics, people who live in the Caribbean, people who live in Africa and Asia can walk in and become citizens immediately. And there you have the white power structure would decline, of course. Because the numbers of people coming here would be people of color. Right? That's the hidden agenda.
See, nobody'll say that. Nobody'll say it. That's what it's all about. It's all about that on both sides, too. Because you have some white people saying, "I don't want to live in a country that has people of color in the majority."
Now my take on it is this: I know where Charles Barron's coming from, and at least Barron was man enough to admit it. How many other programs have you heard anybody say that? But it's absolutely true, absolutely true. At least Barron's honest enough to say it.
[...]
O'REILLY: The unintended consequence of that is that America is going to change. It's going to change in cultural ways, in racial ways, in intellectual ways, in voting ways, in every way. Now, do we, as American citizens, all of us, want that change to come about through illegal methods? This isn't the ballot box. This is, throw it open, let anybody come, and then we'll have a new America. That's what Charles Barron wants, and it's absolutely what the left-wing press wants. They see an opportunity to overthrow what they call the white, privileged, Christian nation. They overthrow that.
Even though most Hispanics are Christian, the left believes that Hispanics who come to the USA will vote left. Now I'm not so convinced of that myself, but Barron certainly believes it. "People of color will vote the way I vote, and we'll kick out all the white people and we'll have a rainbow nation, not a white power structure."
That's -- "white privilege" is the key words. The browning of America. Ladies and gentlemen, you know I hate to say it, because I don't like to debate this kind of stuff, I don't like to do colors-based programs, but that's the bottom line on this whole thing. That's where it is. There's no reason on earth the federal government doesn't secure the border. No reason on this earth. But they're afraid to be demonized as racist, because the real racists who want a color-based country attack them vehemently if they put up a wall or put the military on the border.
[...]
O'REILLY: But the bottom line is Charles Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out, quote-unquote, "white privilege" and to have the browning of America. And, you know, we got it out; we got it out. Now it's out there in play. But, boy oh boy, you're not gonna hear that on anyplace else. You're not gonna hear it, but it's true. A lot of people want that.
So, what color is O'Reilly?
BOR counts on his audience not to question his interpretation of "wipe[ing] out 'white privilege' " as meaning "eliminate all white people". Clueless or disengenous? You decide.
I'd like someone to invent a lie-detecting, hair-removing microbot that could be attached to BO's cod sack.
Then, every time he told a whopper like "I don't care about control at all", the microbot would slowly pull out a single scrotum hair.
It probably wouldn't take more than three days before BO was reduced to a whimpering (and much less talkative) speaker of truth.
This would give Roger Ailes no choice but to fire him for failure to meet FOX NEWS standards.
Classic. Great post
There can no longer be any doubt that O'Reilly is the "real racist" in this debate. I've hesitated in calling him an outright racist in the past, but he couldn't have spelled it out any clearer this time. And what's really crazy is that not only is he unashamed to come right out with it, he actually seems to be beaming with (white) pride.
O'Leilly cracked this one!
Did you notice how proud of himself he was?
This is what BO does. First have the guest say the obvious. In this case, America is going to change. Of course it is. Then state what the possible outcome of that change will be. In this case, more "brown skinned" people and fewer white people. Then interpret that into some sinister plot that BO exposed as stated by the guest. BO, if you are right on this one, I hope you're the first white guy that will be kicked out by all those brown skinned people.
Bill was the first one to bring up race:
~~~
BARRON: Because there are places where they can do good here, if we allow for that to happen and we create change.
O'REILLY: Change?
BARRON: Change.
O'REILLY: So that means a changing America. You want a changing America.
BARRON: Of course America has to change.
O'REILLY: Right.
BARRON: Yes
O'REILLY: And you'd like the changing America to be -- the dominant people would be people of color?
~~~
Now, there are a million and one ways that a country can change itself over time. Why do you think Bill chose race out of all of those possibilities? Could it be that it was because he was talking to a black man? In Bill's mind, the only thing black people can talk about is race so Bill goes on to assume that must have been what his guest was getting at. What else could black people ever think about?
Why would anyone watch Bill and his simple little racist mind?
O'REILLY: And you'd like the changing America to be -- the dominant people would be people of color?
BARRON: That's going to happen anyway, whether you like it or not.
***
BARRON: The bottom line is that you fear your white --
O'REILLY: I don't fear anything.
BARRON: -- your white privilege will no longer exist.
***
Perhaps the color of America will change slowly over the course of the next 50-100 years. Bill O'Reilly won't be around to experience it or to lose his "white privilege". So he should just relax. Wouldn't it be a better country if no race or ethnicity had a certain "privilege" attached to it anyway?
Maybe I'm naive, but I don't fear this country becoming more of a rainbow, or losing my so-called "white privilege" (yes it still does exist in some instances), Bill obviously does, which is a form of racism whether he'd admit so or not.
I prefer to get to know people one on one, not try define them as a monolithic group, which is what Bill is doing here. Oh those scary brown people!! Poor Bill.
O'Reilly loves calling out people and accusing them of "playing the race card," but the fact that he's repeating the phrase "the browning of America" in order to use it as a fear tactic is all anyone needs to know about his perspective in this argument.
Or at least what he wants others to fear, is that the brown people that we've been beating up on for the last few hundred years will treat us the same way when they outnumber us. Perhaps we even deserve it. I hope they show more moral character than we have :P
Actually, I saw that whole segment and couldn't get past the fact that those two kept smiling at each other the whole segment as if they were going to grab a few brewskis right after the show. And, no, Barron never alluded to O'Really's crazy 'truth'..
"[T]he bottom line is Charles Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out 'white privilege' and to have the browning of America."
So B.O.R. is agreeing that there is in fact "white privilege" in America, yet, in hiw world we do not need affirmative action, and no one is a racist, or benefits from it but people who cry racism. Unbelievable. Does he know what he just admitted?
Charles Barron states he wants every immigrant to be treated "the same as Bill O'reilly's ancestors. Anyone volunteering to be treated like the Irish were treated when they came over? For the record, I guess Barron doesn't think having laws regulating who comes to our country and how many should be on the books. What difference does it make if people who come to this country are illegal or not, right!?
If the neocons can make being here as an undocumented immigrant a felony, even after we give them the right to citizenship, they may not have voting rights (or it would be difficult to be able to) because of being a felon (state laws vary regarding voting rights of felons). That may be the reasoning behind the felony clause in HR 4437.
I doubt it. Maybe some just want it to be acknowledge that people who come here illegally have no right to be here and should not stay here.
One segment of O'reilly last night had an audio tape of Delores Huerta speaking at a high school of all places, where she was attepting to influence the students with her "Republicans hate Latinos". She also claimed Latinos were there before the boarders and will be there after they are gone. //www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/9338.php
Sounds more like the Democratic scare tactic like of "voter supression". As far as I am concerned it shouldn't even be a partisan issue; it's a matter of law.
allowed whites to kill the Native Americans? Or create the African Diaspora? Oh, the law that mistreated the Irish? Whatever.
I'm referring to our current law, you know, the one that says you must come here formally, with a background check showing you are worthy of being here. It's teh same law athat says if you are here illegally you will be deported. When you think about it, it makes sense.
Example: Look at Haiti the last couple of years. The people had been without a legitimate government for the last couple of years since the overthrow of Aristide. The country has been in chaos, and killing and fighting is common on the streets. What happens when a poor family hops on a wooden boat to escape the situation and come to the US in hopes of living a life outside of squalid conditions? HR 4437 would classify this family as criminals (felons). HR 4437 and its supporters have no compassion. Criminalizing undocumented workers doesn't stop them from coming. It is a political ploy so that people don't have to discuss the issues; rather, just call them illegal - end of argument. The fact is, as undocumented immigrants, we've had the ability to deport the immigrants but that wasn't good enough for those trying to use ethnicity as a political weapon. Notice that there is little mention of the employers who hire the millions of undocumented workers. There is no call to send the employers to jail. With millions of undocumented workers here there must be tens of 1,000's of employers hiring them. How come the employers are not called criminals and their is no campaign by the rightwing pundits to go after them?
I'm getting tired of statements from certain individuals that act as if this issue is a simple as just getting all of those evil law breakers out of our country and building up our boarders...
I think the anti illegal immigrant crowd should put thier words into action... Shannon, I hope you and your entire family is either growning all of your own fruits and vegtables or are going on a strike against them. I also hope your boycotting all resturants and any other place they might emloyee illegal immigrants to clean or do yard work.
I certainly wouldn't want you to soil your reputation by supporting or encouraging any of those illegals with your actions or activities. I mean you keep stating that we need to pack them all up and get them out of here so I hope you back up your words with action and do your part to drive them out or stop them from coming!
O'Reilly: "That's what Charles Barron wants, and it's absolutely what the left-wing press wants. They see an opportunity to overthrow what they call the white, privileged, Christian nation."
1st - During Barron's interview with O'Reilly, there was no mention of Christianity. O'Reilly is tossing that in the argument to pick up support for his argument
2nd - Barron is a city councilman from NYC. O'Reilly distorts Barron's words and makes it sound like the view of this one NYC council member, who few people outside of NYC know, represents the so-called left wing press and the whole immigration rights movement.
This statement makes so much sense. Whitey O' Reilly forgets that we are a nation of immigrants. It is this mix of humanity that makes this nation great.
The late rerun of his show is playing in the next room and he just said that liberals are gunning for the Easter bunny. I am not making that up; he used those very words.
Clearly this is weighing on his mind and his comment about the "browning of America" refers to this diabolical plot to force the (usually white) Easter bunny to revert to the more natural brown of the field rabbit.
He is probably worried that instead of the White House Easter egg roll, a Democratic administration would bring out the Uzis for a new tradition: the liberal kiddy bunny kill.
It seems to me that the reading of the transcript doesn't support what BOR is saying: that Barron is calling for a browning of the country. Barron is simply saying it's going to happen, [it's] "going to happen whether you or I want it or not." As in: it's inevitable. I didn't hear anyone "hoping" for a change, just a reasonable man saying that it's going to happen. I DID hear one person's fear and panic at this inevitability... and it wasn't Mr. Barron.
Oh my God, no more white privilege? Tell us please O'Reilly how we African Americans can make sure that doesn't happen. Whatever would the world be like without it?
And as much as I generally hate O'Rielly, there's a valid point in here somewhere...his dumbass just doesn't make it.
Via the claim that "well, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen"; Barron basically concedes his point. That, at the very least, the idea of immigration is garnished by the idea of a more "nuetral" ethnic america. And that blurs the line between what is idealogical, and what is smart, safe, and fair for a nation.
Does O'Reilly ever watch tapes of his show? I mean, once he's "out of character" can he even look at this and see what happened? His guest stated a plain fact, and to BOR this is an agenda. If I mention that Bill is mortal and will die some day, can he have me arrested for conspiracy to commit murder?
Amazing, if you listen to his show, that his cabbage-head fans will call in after some huge lack of logic like this and go through a big back slapping about his hard hitting journalistic skills.
Funny note about Latino voting: I work for a construction Co. in Southern California. In the past ten years, our field staff has gone from about 50-50 white/Latino to about 90% Latino-Mexican, Central- and South American.
I'll generalize about some of them this way: Work their culos off, putting off having kids, learning new skills and English every day, primarily Catholic and DON'T like GW Bush.
I'll sum up a much smaller group like this:Born again Christian(anyone in SoCal knows the "radio nueva vida" bumper sticker)very little effort to learn or advance, complaints of racism, lots of kids and lots of time off for kid-related reasons, "Viva Bush" bumper stickers,lack of accountability.
I'm sorry if this offends anyones image of every immigrant being noble and hard working. They're just like Americans: The most Conservative of them conform to every stereotype that Conservatives try to stamp Liberals with.
I did say the second group is a much smaller group than the first.I hope I'm being clear on this. I'm just pointing out that, just as the Blue states pay a lot of taxes to compensate for the flag waving white trash states, and then get called freeloaders, the Mexican guys I know at work generally follow reality more than common perception.That is, the more conservative they are, the closer they are to the GOP's boogeyman of a welfare state , victim mentality, bloodsucking furriner.
An odd claim from a prime proponent of the so-called "CULTURE WARS". If there is nothing to FEAR, then what's the big deal?
So we have the spectacle of the Rightwingers ginning up MASSIVE FEAR, of "brown skinned" people, of godless secularists, of Liberals, of feminists, FEAR FEAR FEAR ... they THEY THEMSELVES ... why, they are WITHOUT FEAR.
FEAR is for you guys out THERE, you cowards and easily manipulated dunces, you ignorant malliable ditto-heads who can be made to FEAR things, while we courageous rightwing commentators laugh at fear.
O'Reilly doesn't suffer the disease ... he's a CARRIER.
Yeah, right. Bill O'Reilly, the Typhoid Mary of FEAR.
It's not just browning in terms of Indian, Afro-American, Hispanic, and Asian families moving here, but it's browning at a genetic level. We're marrying each other (Thank God that love and lust aren't always body-checked by racism.). Many of the children that run up and down my block are racially blended babies...and they're beautiful. There are fewer and fewer pink ones. Billy Graham once said that he looks forward to the day where we all inter-marry and lose race as a reason to hate each other.
Of course, we'll find other reasons to hate, but race is slowly disappearing: at least, in my neighborhood. And I once read that if your family goes back at least 3 generations in America, then there's a ninety-something percent possibility that you carry some African blood. So, the Nazi notion of Aryan purity belongs to the past. Today, it's largely fiction. Most of us are multi-racial...and that phenomenon is accelerating. You don't even need genetic evidence to see it. Go to Africa. South of the Sahara, there are folks as black as ebony. You rarely see that here. Many black Americans have caucasian noses and lips. Some of these traits were probably acquired through rape: masters raping slaves. Some were probably acquired through love and lust, as I see in my neighborhood. But our polar framing of race demands the blacking and whiting of fellow citizens. We don't discuss race with the nuance that history and genetics demand. Rather, like chocolate milk, if there's the slightest bit of brown in a person's body, that person is deemed black, which has that creepy counter-Aryan-purity quality to it. I suspect that America is already browned. And whitened. BOR is arguing from delusion, for an unsophisticated stance that believes he and his buddies at the country club are truly, purely white men. Note all the times that BOR employs "absolutely" in his text. And note that BOR states that there's always "a hidden agenda." His "hidden agenda," it seems, is that he can frame a world where one is absolutely black or white. Unless one goes to the remotest bit of Zaire or Finland, that just isn't so. It's already been determined that blondness, as a trait, is disappearing. So are other sharp racial traits.
...our good buddy Leather helmet hasn't chimed in on this debate? If I had said what O'rielly's said he would have just written it off as just another inane utterance of a race obsessed Black woman. In fact, regardless of anything I write it gets interpreted in his brain to read "I'm a poor soul sister being oppressed by the man". That or he sees something like race race race race race race race. That's how I get categorized; I think you're on the way to becoming categorized as the resident feminazi in his eye, and that you're here solely to propagate the feminazi agenda. (smile) Where are you Leather? Are you as fearful of the browning of America as BO? BTW they did a special segment on the Daily show called the afrohispinaindioasianization of America and it was a hoot.
you make me laugh.
This is especially choice: "In fact, regardless of anything I write it gets interpreted in his brain to read "I'm a poor soul sister being oppressed by the man". That or he sees something like race race race race race race race."
So, I've become Leatherhelmet's fem-nazi? Wow. It wasn't that long ago that Guy labeled me a neocon troll. So, I've been promoted! Woo-hoo! Now, I've got to go and do a jig!!!
If Leatherhelmet ever met me, he'd see that I'm actually a fem-naught, which only looks like a fem-bot: I say "no" to boys that say "yes" to neoconism.
Leather, I'm still waiting for you to share the fem and queer agendas. The Right has reference them soooo many times that you must have seen them.
Seriously though my issue with the immigration debate has always been with the right wingers portraying the illegal immigrants as monsters. Instead of a discussion about the legitimate problems that come with allowing uncontrolled migration into the US it becomes about these evil beigings out to harm specicifically White Americans . I doubt very seriously if the intent of the undocumented workers is anything other than coming to the US to find a job so they can feed themselves and their familits. I doubt that poor hungry uneducated people sat around on the other side of the border creating a geopolitical agenda to to exact the extinction of the dominance of White people in the United States. Talk about conspiricy theorists.
BOR is the Typhoid Mary of FEAR. He's afraid of something new every other day. And many of his fears are justified, for America is racially changing and there's LITTLE he can do to stop that change. However, he can do something about our burning through the last of the oil and our contributing to the melting of the Arctic ice. If we don't adapt, chaos is coming and I don't care how rich you are: you can be the recently retired prez of Exxon with your 400 million dollar pension and your jet and your company car and company driver. If drought comes, if nuclear war begins, then today's terrorism will seem like a small thing. People will do what they must do to survive. That's what Fraidy Cat O'Reilly should fear: not the browning of America, but those people that cling to the past, with its white privilege, rather than prepare for a future without snow and oil.
"There are fewer and fewer pink ones"
Caucasian people aren't "pink". I'm caucasian, and I'm not pink.
I think some white people are enflamed by the whole "browing of America" issue because certain people make it seem as if caucasian people "disappearing" is a good thing, as if non-caucasians are inherently more enlightened, and that's simply not the case.
And just because people of different races have sex with each other and make children doesn't mean that those people aren't at all racist. A lot of people have racial fetishes, which are racist in nature and based on stereotypes. I've watched white guys I know are racist stare at every black girl they see. I've heard blacks make racist comments about whites then check out every white girl they see. A lot of white women chase after black men because they think black men are inherently well-endowed and because they know certain people in their families will have a problem with it. And while you might see a lot of bi-racial children, the majority of them are born out of wedlock, which isn't a good thing much of the time. A lot of those kids identify with only one part of the background also and end up feeling that they have to "choose" one side of them and "reject" the other. I mean, wasn't Hitler part jew? It didn't stop him from hating jews. Hell, I went to a high-school that was over 50% African-American, and I can remember AA kids teasing each other over being "too dark" or "too yellow" or "looking white" like being one was better than being the other. I've overheard AA women say that they want to find a white lover so that they can have a light-skinned child.
Just look at his pic up above.
Okay, maybe he's salmon.
...BOR looks tan to me. :)
One of us has to adjust our monitor.
I don't think it's my monitor. Media Matters banner looks nice and green, just like it should! ;-)
I'm in a whacky mood, but I'm not so whacked that I can't recognize someone that actually has a clue. Thanks for the FYIing! ;-)
^5 Holly :)
...with people that know more than me. So, thanks for the data and the love!
I read a Rolling Stones story on Bill O'Reilly. The reporter talked with old friends and co-workers to paint a clear picture that he's a guy who's great at exploiting populist issues and a master at stretching the truthK/b>. There's a reason Fox signed him to an allegedly $20 million dollar contract.
Few can take O'Reilly on. I saw the Barron piece and he didn't handle O'Reilly's pit bull attacks well at all. He looked defensive which painted to Bill's right-wing audience an image of another lying lib being added to Bill's extensive trophy case. It was a slam dunk win for bloviating Bill.
I learned years ago from a local radio talk show personality that a guest on a show like that can't win because the deck is stacked against them. The O'Reillys of the world control the questions, they control the flow of conversation, they control the mike (O'Reilly's show is not live and is heavily edited), they can steer opinions with slanted opening segments and wrap-ups, etc.
That's Bill's game. Most of what he says are half-truths or less and he never gives his guest a chance to get off the right-wing path he steers them down. He's an undisputed master of dishonest 'debate' tactics. Liberals can try to expose his tricks but his audience has a vested interest in not believing critics because they need O'Reilly's (and Rush's and Savage's and Hannity's and ...) preachings to prop up their own far right political faith.
It's sad that America has crawled back into - thanks to Fox News - the muckraking style of journalism we all thought had faded into a historical footnote a century ago.
...people like Oh Really are the ones that love illegal immigration so that they can get people to do work they don't want to do on the cheap.
Actually, I think he does have a point. I do think some of the people supporting illegal immigration are people who do want Hispanics to become the majority. They want to be surrounded by people who look like them and speak the same language and see that as some victory against white people. I don't think that they'd care if majority of illegal immigrants coming here were say Russian. Oh Really probably wouldn't mind either.
I don't think the majority of illegals coming here care either way whether or not they become the majority. They're here primarily because they want to make money. If all the good paying jobs were in Mexico, I'm sure you'd see a lot of Americans of all colors running down there to make money and send it home.
Illegal immigration is a problem for a number of reasons, and it needs to be dealt with. It's bad for both the illegals and the people who were born here. They're both getting screwed. But I don't think generating fear is the answer. We're punishing the wrong people. Instead of criminalizing the illegals, go after the companies that hire them. Take a look at why people are so willing to risk life, limb, and imprisonment just to come here. Why are things so bad where they are? What hand does the US play in it? What can we do to make it better? NAFTA? Hello?
You have everyone and their mother wanting to come here instead of staying where they are to make things better there. Isn't there something wrong with that picture? People on the right tell liberals to leave if they don't like it here. Liberals mostly refuse. So why do we encourage people to abandon their native countries to come here simply because they don't like it there. Their leaders certainly don't mind seeing them go.
You even see it within our country and within our cities. People want to abandon the cities for the suburbs. People on the east coast think it's better in California. Then they go there and discover it's not the case. The people who move from the cities to the 'burbs because they want to shelter their kids find that there are just as much drugs use out in Pleasant Valley (if not more so) than there is in say Bunksburg. The people that go out to live in CA can't find jobs. And the people who come here from The Third World often end up living in as much squalor and poverty as they did back home. I'm in Pittsburgh. I read recently about a family from Somalia with 8 people living in one tiny house. It's pretty sad when people prefer that to what they had back in Somalia.
I say make all the illegals currently in the US legal, and then close the door, to all of them, not matter where they come from. Then use our military for what it was meant to do, to protect our borders, not to engage in imperialistic adventures. Criminalize the people who hire illegals. Get rid of NAFTA and GATT. For those jobs that Americans supposedly "will not do", start paying a higher wage for those jobs, at least enough for someone to live on, and then maybe legal American citizens will want to do them. Encourage people to come here LEGALLY and to go through the proper channels, but at the same time, export the good things our country has to offer. Bomb countries with our quality-of-life-improving innovations instead of our weapons and our consumerism. Instead of going around toppling despots, let the people in those countries learn from our example by becoming a true progressive Democracy instead of a neo-fascist oligarchy beholden to coporate interests.
I know I'm rambling, but I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately.
I just hope the fireballs that the demogogues on both sides keep throwing don't distract from any real solutions to what is a real problem.
Right on. Wouldn’t that be great? Instead we just get to live under the illusion of democracy with a feeling of helplessness.
Referencing Juiced comment on “white privilege”: Honestly it does exist and it’s pretty prevalent. When you’re not white, it’s pretty easy to see. But most people are not to blame for it or for taking advantage of it. They are more likely to blame for not being aware of it.
When a white person complains about being uncomfortable in a situation where they are the only white person… it’s upsetting. I sure as hell know what its like to be the only brown person. Learn from it. Realize that there are so many people who experience this on a daily basis. To succeed in this country, many have to adapt to the American way… which is pretty white and pretty Christian, if you ask me.
Anyway this fight is not about color, it’s about workers. There are people in high places who would be very afraid to give workers legitimate rights. They only like to do it when they are forced to. Of course, they still want the cheap labor, and the easiest way is to demonize the worker. Yes, Shannon- that’s what the immigration law is for. Have you ever experienced the legal immigration process? It’s pretty brutal and grueling, especially if the applicant is from a third world country, even if your reason for coming is that your family is here. Actually, even a visitor visa is difficult, impossible if there is already an immigration application. We are lucky that we have a free passport to most places in the world! Whatever color, we as Americans do have an American privilege. I surely take advantage of that one!
Lastly, this country was built by rape, pillage and plunder. The wealthy, less racially-integrated class certainly loves to import cheap labor, but does not like to deal with the consequences. America just might get “browned.” How will they assert their privilege and superiority if the majority of Americans openly and powerfully disagrees with it?
Bill O’ Reilly is certainly a strongly opinionated idiot. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people like him. He has the gall to say the things he does publicly. It would be a pointless losing battle to debate with someone who argues from his false sense of superiority. But he does bring forward a great point. As a country, do we believe in American superiority and white privilege? If we don’t, we should certainly be on the side of those supposed “illegals” who are working for us. If anyone is to blame, it is the crooks in government.
O'REILLY: The unintended consequence of that is that America is going to change. It's going to change in cultural ways, in racial ways, in intellectual ways, in voting ways, in every way. Now, do we, as American citizens, all of us, want that change to come about through illegal methods? This isn't the ballot box.
O'Reilly you moron.Think about the breath-taking stupidy and hypocrisy of this statement.Since Bush ILLEGALLY STOLE THE TWO THOUSAND ELECTION YOU PATHETIC,BIGOT FRAUD,he and his criminal friends(corporate,media and otherwise)have gone about changing America forever,in ways that probably 200 million people neither agree with or voted for.So take your BALLOT BOX and JAM IT UP YOUR SMUG BEHIND.