The vile, white supremacy-promoting Bill O’ Reilly has finally been fired….and Black People Are Celebrating?

 

On March 28th, 2017, Fox News presenter Bill O’ Reilly made a comment, comparing Representative Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) hairdo to the iconic style once worn by The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, during a segment on Fox & Friends. Within days, Black people (and a small minority of others) were in a tizzy over the comments and, I guess, rightfully so. O’ Reilly, who once quipped about worrying that his hub caps were being stolen, outside, while he gave a speech at a fundraiser for disadvantaged kids and has never been at a loss for words when it comes to disparaging comments about Black people in the past, had just made mockery of a true advocate for Black empowerment who had given tirelessly to “the cause” and who was revered by generations…..and he also made fun of Congresswoman Waters, as well. In early April, Fox News began deflecting arrows of accusation fired at O’ Reilly

regarding several sexual harassment claims, made by women who said that host verbal abused them and made lewd comments, unwanted advances and even phone calls. The complaints go back to at least 2002, according to information available. O’ Reilly, who is no stranger to accusations of being a pervert or verbal and even physical abuse, of course, vehemently denied the charges. Despite a ringing endorsement by no less an authority on “good person(s)”, Donald Trump, himself, by April 4th, 31 sponsors (including Mercedes-Benz, GlaxoSmithKline and Allstate) had pulled away from his Fox show and on April 19th, Fox News announced that it was severing ties, completely, with the 67 year old. Fox News’ biggest bullhorn of bigotry and the most popular purveyor of their propaganda was gone.

Black people took to the sreets…..nah, I’m lying they only got on Twitter…and celebrated the end of his show, the O’ Racist Factor, as if they or We had won anything. Dont get me wrong, Bill O’ Reilly is a racist, sexist, wife-beater with the brain of a protoplasm (sit him in front of a teleprompter, wind him up and watch him go!) but Black people have nothing to celebrate, here. You see, Bill O’ Reilly was allowed to go unchecked for decades at Fox while spewing some of the most hateful, incendiary remarks at some of the darkest times for Blacks, in America. He blamed Trayvon Martin for his own death, saying that he died because he “looked like a gangster” so you can probably guess his thoughts on Mike Brown (THUG), Sandra Bland (should have just complied!) and any and everything else. Bill O’ Reilly was fired after the Maxine Waters comments but not because of the comments. Feel me? White Supremacy always allows for victims of its own kind to fall, as collateral damage, as the machine marches and chugs forward.

Remember, the virtue of white womanhood has always been the reason or flimsy excuse to do harm to Black people, Black men especially, but the dozens of poor, innocent, defenseless white women who were thrown in with wolves like O’ Reilly, other FOX staffers and even the CEO and Chairman of the network were to be ground up and spit out, without a care. And, they had and would have been as FOX has reportedly paid out over 13 million dollars to over 5 women….for O’ Reilly accusers alone, over the years.

It wasnt until the adverti$ser$ got $pooked and $tarted to di$tance themselves did Fox suddenly get a dose of Act Right and put him on the curb. O’ Reilly was allowed to disrespect Black people and physically harm white women until it affected his employers’ bottom line. Because of a lack of basic support from the community, among other reasons, most black businesses rarely reach beyond the mom-and-pop level so they wouldn’t have had the economic power to punish the host or his network and, consequently,blacks had to wait until justice was given to them. Black people, as a whole, do not have an economic basis to reward or punish anyone so we are forced to stand by idly while red-faced, faux shamed corporations pretend to punish media personalities and entertainers who took a step or leap across the line by scolding them as they are pushed out the front door, only to be let in the back or even side door and set up for an even bigger chance at power, wealth and/or influence.

(see Dog the Bounty Hunter, Don Imus, Paula Deen and countless others for proof)

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Speaking of influence, the silence from NOW, the organizers January’s Women’s March on Washington and especially the “black feminists” (who have binders full of posts about the supposed inherent misogyny/homophobia of Black men) was deafening. No Gloria Allred on this one, hunh. Not surprising though, we had about a 3 week span where young, Black women were getting MMA’d and thrown around beauty supply and nail shops, nationwide, without so much as a peep from these people who purport to protect all women….as long as they’re white and from a certain income strata. But, that’s another post for another time.

Black people couldn’t affect O’ Reilly or Fox News monetarily and his firing will do nothing to slow the spread of their brand of poison as Tucker Carlson, a surlier, less affable version of a white supremacist than O’ Reilly, has already been installed in his time slot. Yes, the machine of white supremacy goes on, just with a different driver.

Black people nor the mistreatment of Black people got Bill O’ Reilly fired and, yeah, it’s always been fun to see when massa slipped and busted his ass. However, until we do something to effect change, BY OUR OWN HAND, the plantation will still go on the same way in the morning, so why so much celebrating?

Look at the flick of the wrist OR yes, Obama really can effect “change”…

bathroomcop

Looking back, the fight over transgender people’s right to use public restrooms has probably been going on for a while….among transgendered people. Honestly, I cant recall ever even seeing a trans person in or about to enter either public restroom but, somehow, here we are. In searching for landmark trans restroom cases and issues, I found that in November of 2014, a Maine student who transitioned from male to female was awarded 75K in a discrimination suit against the Orono school district. It turns out that the school had been allowing the student to use the staff restroom but the parents felt that singling the child out in that way was discriminatory. On April 1st, 2015, the EEOC ruled that the the Department of the Army discriminated against a male-to-female, transgendered employee by not allowing access to the women’s restroom used by other female employees. As you can see, the fight has been going on, quietly, behind the scenes with victories and successes counted amongst the court outcomes.sign

The most recent, nationwide flap, however, started when North Carolina decided to go against the grain and follow their own path, as it were. In response to a local Charlotte ordinance which forced businesses to allow trans persons to use the restroom or locker room of their choice, the state legislature passed HB2 which prohibits individuals from using restrooms urinal-odditywhich do not correspond to their biological sex. In addition, the bill bans local cities and municipalities from passing any law that would reverse, weaken or supersede the state’s position. In early May of 2016, the United States government sued the state of North Carolina over their law, saying it violated federal laws against discrimination on the basis of sex. North Carolina countersued, asking the Justice Department to prove, in federal court, that they had, in fact, violated U.S. law. On Friday, May 6th The Justice Department replied, via letter, telling the state they had until Monday to “remedy the situation”. Wow, chit got real, real fast.

I gave you the background before I went in to set the stage because although I strive to and hopefully do respect the rights of all individuals, I’m having a hard time overstanding, maybe accepting, how swiftly the government and President Obama can step in with some issues while seemingly dragging their feet or outright ignoring others. Mr. Squeaky Wheel is about to screech! Looking at the condition of Blacks in America, who knew a simple stroke of a pen and a hard deadline from the Justice Department to immediately cease and desist was even possible? The practices of redlining, “benign neglect”, removal of crucial city infrastructures (hospitals, schools etc.), sub-prime lending and others that have kick-started, enabled and sustained the mass, nationwide gentrification of formerly Black cities and parts of town could have all been abolished with stroke of a pen? The poorly funded, substandard, TFA-infested, school-to-prison pipeline of a public school system in Black parts of town, across this country, could be revised, renewed and redirected with the flick of a wrist? Who the fok knew? What could a flick of the wrist, a hard deadline and the threat of losing federal funding have done to police departments in Ferguson, Baltimore and Sanford, Fla (just to name a few) when chit came up shady? The Brown vs. The Board of Education decision was carried out on May 17th, 1954 and as recently as just the other day, schools were still segregated or fighting it. When speaking on racial economic equality and progress, which he is adverse to doing, and with good reason , one of Obama’s most widely used quotes among his followers and defenders is “a rising tide lifts all boats”. It’s apparent that he’s not one to rock the boat when it comes to us but, damn, why be afraid to touch the boat in Cleveland, Mississippi that was rocked 62 years ago and didn’t rise with the tide, at all? Wait, wasn’t there another whole restroom issueCI2C5GtW8AA-P55 that lingered on and on and on without a quick summary letter, threat, done and ending? Zimzay? Can you imagine if General Electric decided they wouldnt sell their products to police departments with specious procedures and those that have displayed pattern and practice  with racial discrimination and profiling? What if Deutsche Bank, Hewlett-Packard and Hyatt all did the same thing? Again, I’m for equality but where’s the Stand Up Balls from our politicians, entertainers and corporate America when it comes to our issues? Who among those listed threatened to not play in or do business in Cleveland, Ohio after the Tamir Rice murder?

Look at that, jeez, can one paragraph have more questions? Of course, because it’s mine and I have two more…

Where the hell have Pres. Obama and the DOJ been when we needed them?
And
Where the hell where the transgendered people pissing before all of this?