When it comes to the hip-hop community as far as media is concerned it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Bill O’Reilly is public enemy number one. In the history of nationally broadcasted television no one individual has solely made it his mission to tarnish and discredited our culture more than “Mr. O’Reilly”.
If Bill’s viral episodes of his always entertaining The O’Reilly Factor featuring Cam’ron, Dame Dash and more recently Lupe Fiasco weren’t enough to prove the afore mentioned statements his latest interview with Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam records, certainly will.
Yesterday, Simmons had the rare opportunity to go head to head with Fox News anchor. Fueled by the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, the brief discussion touched on the topics of violence in the black community how that violence directly affects the prison industrial complex.
The interview kicked off with O’Reilly declaring the nexus point for the overwhelming amount of unwarranted deaths by law enforcement is strife between poor blacks and the police striven by black crime. Russell seamlessly responded, stating that by providing sensitivity training for both the police and those being policed a mutually beneficial relationship can be created; thus minimizing the occurrence of murders as a result of excessive force.
Even though his track record proves otherwise, for a moment in time I thought wow Bill if actually has a well rooted point of view. However, after stating ” the astronomical crime rate amongst young black me, violent crime drives suspicion and hostility on the part of the police who have to be confronted with it. You won’t acknowledge it Russell. You won’t acknowledge it.” he quickly reminded me just how ignorant he is when it comes to black issues.
Now I could tell you word for word how the hip-hop mogul schooled “Mr. O’Reilly” about black stereotypes and how they directly affect our community but i’d rather you hear it straight from the horses mouth. Fast-forward to the 1:20 mark in the video above and be pre-pared for the lesson of a lifetime!
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