Just Get Over It

I just read an Associated Press article, giving Bill O'Reilly crap about his supposed racist comments. The article quoted O'Reilly as saying 'after eating at Sylvia's restaurant, he said that he "couldn't get over the fact" that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia's and other restaurants.' He also said "It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun," he said. "And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." He made a few other quotes, but you should really read the article to get the whole idea, because I'm not here to re-write it. I'm here to make a point.

I want to start out by saying that I'm not a fan of Bill O'Reilly. I don't dislike the guy either; in fact, I haven't watched his program enough to make an informed opinion about Bill O'Reilly. With that out of the way, let me get on with my rant.

Is there anything a white guy can do or say that's not racist? Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that Bill O'Reilly is a racist. If he is a racist, don't his words express a willingness to take a step back and re-evaluate his biases? My (uninformed) understanding is that O'Reilly has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth quite a bit, so it's quite possible that his words are being taken completely out of context. Look folks, crap like the whole Jena 6 fiasco is blatantly racist and out of line. But if we're ever going to get past the whole racism issue, we need to quit looking for racism, quit crying wolf, and Just Get Over It!