But the more important issue of judicial injustice in the south might be overshadowed by some comments Bill O'Reilly made last week in a radio discussion on race and racism.

The controversy comes from O'Reilly's retelling his experience with Sharpton at a famous African American restaurant in Harlem, Sylvia's. O'Reilly said he was surprised to see black folks acting civilized!
"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."
"That's right," O'Reilly said. "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, `M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.'"
O'Reilly says CNN and Mediamatters.org, which first published a transcript, twisted his words.
You can read the transcript and decide whether or not his comments were racist or just dumb. While it did not amount to a Don Imus moment, there is no question, however, that his words point to the TWISTED racist stereotypes that O'Reilly shares with some other white Americans.
As one CNN reporter put it: "They call this a subtle type of racism. It's not the 'hit you over the head with a hammer' type; it's the 'velvet glove' type."
Sharpton told the AP he was confused that anyone would be "surprised" at how blacks acted at Sylvia's. He plans to ask O'Reilly to explain what he meant Wednesday night.


1. I read the transcript and I surprisingly was not offended by it. O'Reilly was just saying that contrary to popular belief, not all black people act like ignorant rappers. I don't think he was being racist at all, rather stating the truth.
Aliya at 1:10PM on Sep 26th 2007