"Shout out to Bill O'Reilly"

Don’t Get Gassed:
Bill O’Reilly is not the Devil
written by JusHH

Usually when an opinion becomes so one-sided that people agree to it without knowing any of the facts, it’s time to re-evaluate the position. Here’s the typical view on Bill, he’s a racist and he hates Hip-Hop. But don’t get gassed, Bill O’Reilly isn’t as bad as you might think.

Let’s tackle the first claim since it is the strongest accusation and probably the most inaccurate. While Bill O’Reilly is an unapologetic conservative, he is not a racist. You would have to watch more than a few YouTube clips in order to know that. Every day for an hour, Bill hosts The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News and if you’ve watched any episode, you would know that he criticizes everyone equally. In fact, he comments on other white people the most. If he has any bias or prejudice, it’s pretty much political. Now I’m not saying that some of his views toward minorities aren’t insensitive but it’s far from racist. When he does criticize black people, if you actually listen objectively, it’s no different than what we’ve said amongst each other. But when certain things come from affluent white man, it can easily come off as racist. I encourage you to watch one of his shows and determine for yourself.

Now, the Hip-Hop thing is a bit more complicated. Bill definitely holds no punches when it comes to dropping the hammer on what he calls “gangster rap”. He first made public headlines within the Hip-Hop community when he petitioned Pepsi, to drop Ludacris from its ads because he curse and sends negative messages that are not fit for the audience that the soft drink company sells to. Pepsi eventually dropped Ludacris and picked up the Osbournes for its Super Bowl ads. Although the Osbourne family curses more in one of their reality episodes than Luda would have on an entire album, there were no issues coming from the O’Reilly camp. Bill has also used his show to taunt and disparage Snoop Dogg which has lead to a colorful war of words. Whenever Snoop is asked about the Right Wing analyst, he responds with, “F**k Bill O’Reilly”. Most recently, Bill has received a wave of ice grills when he spoke out against Virginia Tech’s decision to invite Nas to perform at a benefit concert for the families of the shooting victims last year. Considering all that goes on in this world, it would seem that Bill O’Reilly spends an awful amount of time discussing a music genre. To use time that he could spend talking about something more important, must mean that he’s got a big ax to grind with Hip-Hop and the people in it.

When you dig a bit deeper though, that position begins to falter a bit. Bill O’Reilly doesn’t just pick on Hip-Hop when it comes to pop culture. He has done numerous segments on Britney Spears when she “misbehaves” and ridicules her for making a fool of herself and setting a bad example for little girls. However, you’ll probably never see any of these segments posted on allhiphop.com. With regards to the situation with Ludacris, we need to be honest about our own music. As much as I love him as an artist, when I have children, there’s many songs that I simply can’t play in front of them. Frankly, there are many situations where Cris’ lyrics and subject matter is simply inappropriate. Given that, is it that far fetched to see someone object to that person representing a product that is supposed to cater to everyone? If you found that Don Imus was sponsoring a universal product, many minorities would have a problem with that. The Nas situation is more of the same except if you watched Bill’s entire segment you would have realized that he was really chastising the President of Virginia Tech. Bill actually said that he doesn’t have a problem with Nas performing at the school; he just felt that given his lyrics and his gun charge, he shouldn’t perform at a benefit concert for the families of 33 people murdered by a handgun. Does that sound like prejudice? Isn’t it very possible that a mother or sister in the audience might get upset when Nas performed “Got Urself a Gun” or spat the lyrics, “I load an extended clip and body them all day”? Again we have to be honest and admit that we can’t have it both ways. We can’t use our freedom of speech for obscenities and offensive lyrics and get sensitive when someone takes offense to them. Despite being personal and a bit childish, his beef with Snoop isn’t a form of bigotry either. Snoop Dogg is an international superstar who promotes all kinds of products to kids. His captivating personality has him in movies, television shows and on billboards across the world. He is also a former gang-member who to this very day reps that gang and proudly wears its colors. He has been arrested many times over the last few years from everything from assault to drug possession. Bill O’Reilly is not making these bad decisions, Snoop is. He has offered Snoop the chance to discuss his side on his show on countless occasions and Snoop has declined. If he feels that this rapper shouldn’t be glorified and seen in the households of families and decides to takes shots at him, it’s only because Snoop handed him a loaded gun.

We as an entire community have to start taking responsibility for our own actions. We can’t promote and support certain things in our culture and music and not have repercussions. Everyone doesn’t “get” Hip-Hop and not everyone likes it and wants it in their lives. Bill O’Reilly has never, ever said that Hip-Hop music should be stopped and he even acknowledges that there are positive aspects of the music; he just vehemently attacks the things he has a problem with. Is he always fair and balanced? No. But that doesn’t mean that what he’s saying isn’t the truth and it definitely doesn’t make him a racist or a “hater”. We shouldn’t get mad that he’s talking about us; we should be upset at ourselves for giving him so much to vilify.