O'Reilly & Spicey's Uncool Week

Sean "Spicey" Spicer and Bill O'Reilly 

Remember back in the fall of 2007 when Fox host Bill O'Reilly went to the famous Harlem restaurant Sylvia's for dinner with Al Sharpton?

He made headlines when he went on his syndicated radio show and marveled at "the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City...There wasn't one person in Sylvia's screaming, 'M-Fer I want more iced tea.'"

Now there were an awful lot of people back then, of different races and ethnicities, who sort of shook their heads in disbelief and realized that O'Reilly had in all likelihood, never eaten in a room with black folks before.

Of course that was simply O'Reilly's way of trying to be magnanimous in a cultural sense (and it was sooooo awkward).

But the fact that he was harboring the impression that black restaurant patrons who want something else to drink just scream out 'M-Fer I want more iced tea!' to their waitress or waiter offered valuable insight into the mindset of the hyper-conservative Fox News audience.

In particular the ways in which they tend to perceive, and portray African American people.

O'Reilly's comment to 78-year-old Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters during a segment on Fox and Friends last week proved that the prickly curmudgeon hasn't really changed a whole lot in ten years.

Or maybe he's simply feeling more free to tap into his "inner Bill" in the era of Trump when the Republican Party has mainstreamed bigotry and intolerance.

If there's any one trait consistently shared by the leading media or political figures of 21st century American conservatism, it's a startling inability (or unwillingness?) to grasp the basic subtleties of race and ethnicity.

Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Based on the smirky O'Reilly's snide comment about Waters' hair looking like a "James Brown wig",  it's painfully obvious that the complex issues surrounding black women's hair elude him.

That's not surprising given that he works in a televised ideological vacuum where he doesn't actually have to confront criticism and controls who gets the chance to question him.

After all let's be honest, at this point O'Reilly is basically Rush Limbaugh for TV.

Now in no way am I suggesting that O'Reilly is under some kind of obligation to understand or delve into the elusive complexities of black women's hair, but if he's going to make outlandish and dismissive pronouncements about a female African American Congresswoman's hair on national television, then he damned well better have some idea of what the hell he's talking about.

Maybe a good start for Bill would be to pop open a cold beer, sit down and watch the brilliant 2009 Chris Rock-produced documentary 'Good Hair' - a fascinating look into the $ 9 billion-plus (yes, $9 billion with a B) black hair industry - and, particularly for black women, how hair style is so closely linked with self esteem.

Or, if he prefers reading, Lena Williams' 2000 nonfiction book "It's the Little Things: The Everyday Interactions That Get Under the Skin of Blacks and Whites" offers some really interesting real-life snippets on the issues related to hair that really set black women off.

Check out this excerpt from the book that was published in the New York Times in 1997.

But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for O'Reilly to do either of those things, he seems far more interested (and invested) in tweaking the racial anxieties, assumptions and fears of his Fox News audience.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on the other hand should know better.

April Ryan (left) during exchange with Spicey

On Tuesday he too made headlines when he somewhat rudely talked over African American reporter April Ryan during a White House press briefing.

With the State Department in a state of chaos, rumors in DC are flying that Trump is considering replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with former Bush National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice, Ryan justifiably asked Spicer about Rice's scheduled visit to the White House.


As a Politico.com article detailed on Wednesday, Spicer got testy and defensive and after sort of talking over Ryan, he then told her to stop shaking her head.

The exchange had clear racial undertones in terms of how it looked - a perception magnified by the tone of Trump's campaign and presidency.

Spicer's comments also must be viewed in the context of the glaring silence from the White House and Trump on the various incidents of anti-Semitism and racism that have taken place across the U.S. since the start of the year.

Trump, who tweets ceaselessly about Muslim terrorist acts, was virtually silent about a 51-year-old white man named Adam Purinton shooting and killing an Indian man named Srinivas Kuchibhotla (and wounding another Indian man and a white man who came to their defense too) in a Kansas bar as he yelled "get out of my country".

Victim Timothy Caughman & James Jackson

When reporters in the White House briefing room recently asked Spicer about 66-year-old Timothy Caughman being stabbed and killed with a sword in New York by a racist killer from Baltimore who'd planned to murder black men to stop interracial dating, Spicer ducked the question by saying "I don't know all the details." 

People around the globe knew the details of that incident - why didn't he or Trump?

Let's be clear.

In 21st century America "I don't know all the details" is not a sufficient answer from the White House press secretary when a deranged racist killer stabs a black man on the streets of New York.

Spicer and his boss still don't seem to have grasped the role of the White House in staking out a clear and defined position on the issues that matter most to Americans.

It was Trump's decision to run for one of the most complex jobs on the planet based on his being an "outsider", and then surround himself with a cadre of senior advisers who have more rigid ideological world views and loyalty to Trump than they do experience in politics.

So in my view, the inability of the White House to stake out some kind of position on anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance demonstrates that they really don't yet collectively understand the role and function of the executive branch of the U.S. government outside of the external trappings and "prestige" of the office.

That's just one of the reasons why the decision to pull the Republican healthcare bill last week was such a rude awakening for the Trump administration - he's so consumed with the concept and appearance of power that he doesn't understand how presidential power actually works.

Will Republicans ever have this kind of cool?

Modern American Presidents like FDR, JFK, Reagan and Clinton and most recently Obama did.

They were all shrewd political communicators who understood that presidential power is a limited mandate rooted in the ability to effectively communicate and persuade the voters who grant that mandate once every four years.

The power of the presidency lies in the bully pulpit and the soapbox - the ability to persuade and move the needle to nudge Congress to act.

Not in sitting in the Oval Office signing executive orders in front of cameras and holding them up to be photographed like a fourth grader bringing home a pop quiz with a star on it from school to show his or her parents.

Like it or not Trump is the de facto head of the Republican Party, his poor communication skills combined with a press secretary who simply doesn't discuss issues related to race or ethnicity because he knows it will come back to hurt his boss, is affecting their ability to get their message out.

When you throw in a guy like Bill O'Reilly making bigoted comments about Maxine Waters' hair on Fox News, it paints the Republican Party and conservatives in general as cultural idiots.

Trump campaigns in Macomb County, Michigan

JFK had a "cool factor". So did Reagan, Clinton and Obama.

As we've seen this week, there's just nothing cool about the Republican Party today.

They just come off as angry, spiteful, denigrating, ignorant and overtly intolerant.

Unwelcoming and hostile to the bulk of the American populace.

As I've tried to understand the toxic hatred they've uncorked, which I experienced in my office first-hand three weeks ago, one of the things that's helped me to understand the mindset of the aggrieved working class whites in this country has been Mark Binelli's recent article in Rolling Stone, "Inside Trump County, USA".

His analysis of why the mostly-white, heavily Catholic Michigan county of Macomb voted overwhelmingly for Trump last November despite the region's strong union ties to Michigan's auto and manufacturing industry, has helped me to gain perspective on what's happening in this country.

At the least, it's given me more insight into who Bill O'Reilly was talking to when he insulted Maxine Waters - and why Sean Spicer is afraid to even talk about race.

The Little Things

As author and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote in her insightful foreword to It's The Little Things, journalist Lena Williams' illuminating non-fiction book on race relations, published back in 2000, sometimes in this life,   "It really IS the little things."

It's a great read about perspectives on race by the way and you can pick up a used copy on Amazon.com for under five bucks.

I wanted to get "a little thing" off my chest, so bear with me.

Yesterday morning I made my way over to the offices of Mercer County Connection, a non-descript office located in a rather typical single story brick shopping center just off route 33 and Paxson Avenue in Hamilton about five minutes from my apartment.

The gigantic "Super Acme" where I do most of my grocery shopping (excellent produce section) is in the same shopping center, so I drive by the MCC office all the time.

My purpose was to attend a free, one-hour seminar on wills, executors and durable power of attorney being given by Susan Knispel, the Supervising Attorney for the Mercer County Legal Services Project For the Elderly - an outreach project formed in 1980 that provides free legal assistance to Mercer County New Jersey residents who are 60 years of age or older.

Now as you know I may bitch about Governor Chris Christie and the taxes in Jersey, but things like this seminar are one example of the range of government services and the quality of life here in Hamilton - check the price on a one hour consultation with an attorney who specializes in wills and you'll see what I mean.

Our family is in the process of updating my mother's will to make sure that her specific requests and wishes for her medical treatment choices and end-of-life medical care options are all very clearly spelled out in the event she becomes incapacitated.

For any of you folks of a certain age, you don't need an attorney to fill out an Advanced Medical Directive to spell out your wishes for your medical care; the form is available to download online for free and all you need to do is fill it out and get it notarized or have two witnesses sign it.

Anyway, when I arrived, there was an elderly Asian woman standing outside the door intently studying a brochure and as I walked in I was surprised to see the room almost filled to capacity with about 35 to 40 seniors and a few older adults who looked recently retired.

Aside from a middle-aged African-American woman seated behind a large "welcome desk" on the right side of the room and a young Indian woman who later came in late (more on that in a moment), I was the only person of color in the room and was by far the youngest.

The room was relatively silent as the above-mentioned attorney giving the presentation was standing behind a small desk set up at the front of the room and people were waiting for her to begin; I noticed there were still some seats left and I began to make my way to one of them.

"Excuse me? Sir?" a voice called out.

I looked to my right and the African-American woman behind the large desk at the front had raised her left hand authoritatively and was beckoning me over; she was simultaneously listening to a frail older man with white hair who was trying to understand what he needed in order to get a passport.

No disrespect but he was quite befuddled and as I walked over to heed her call, I had to stand behind him while she carefully and patiently repeated some documents that he needed to have with him to get a passport - a service which MCC also provides.

Now as I mentioned, I'm the only African-American besides her in the room and as some of you who read this blog know, I'm a 6'7" former professional football player, so I'm already sticking out like a sore thumb in a room full of white seniors; some of whom are now glancing at me discreetly since it was quiet in the room and the woman calling me over might as well have honked a car horn.

As a rule, I'm a rather careful planner, and I never mess around with events like these - if I go somewhere, be it a meeting, a concert, a talk, I'm always on the list, have a reservation or a ticket.

I'm a 6'7" black guy in New Jersey, I can't just "crash" events, just doesn't work.

Anyway I had called MCC the week before, made a reservation and given my name; probably to the woman who was still trying to explain passport documents while holding up her hand towards me as if to simultaneously hold me in place with what I can only assume was her way of wordlessly saying, "I'll be with you in a moment."     

As a residential leasing agent who deals with customers all day long in person, on the phone and via email, I know a little something about customer service and treating people with courtesy and respect.

If I'm dealing with a tenant who's seated at my desk and someone else walks in the leasing office, I always make sure to politely say "Excuse me a moment." to the person I'm speaking with to make eye contact with the visitor and assure them I'll be with them in a moment, and invite them to either take a seat on the couch or have a look around the office while I finish up - my office is also a model for a 1-bedroom apartment.

So my antennae were already up as I felt the woman behind the desk was being somewhat inconsiderate for loudly calling me over then not even having the courtesy to make eye contact with me.

I  was probably only standing there for about 90 seconds, but it seemed longer and when the old man in front of me finally shuffled off, she asked if she could help me.

Now of course she'd just seen me going for a seat for the seminar on wills before she called me over to the desk, so while I was tempted to say something smart in response, I thought better of it and politely told her I was there for the seminar, told her I had a reservation and gave her my name.

She found it, crossed it off with a yellow highlighter and thanked me.I thanked her back and took a seat to wait for the seminar to begin.

The exchange kept going through my mind as I sat there waiting for the seminar to begin and even though the woman at the desk was herself black, I couldn't stop wondering if she had called me over simply because I was black.

I didn't feel slighted or anything, but I did feel singled out and admittedly my feathers were lightly ruffled.

Looking back, those feelings were probably magnified by my own sense of isolation being the only African-American visitor in the room at the time.

Author and journalist Lena Williams

As Lena Williams writes about with humor in her book Its The Little Things, for many African-Americans and other people of color, it's usually not something "big" like being refused service in a restaurant because of one's race; that actually happened to me in Moscow during  a visit to the Soviet Union in 1987.

Oft times it's the small, quiet little exchanges people take for granted that take place during the course of a normal day that can prick one's racial sensitivities.

Like a grocery store clerk who smiles at white customers then says nothing when it's your turn in line; or a cop that gives you "a look" for no reason.

 The exchange can be momentary, and the action that prompts one to immediately suspect race or ethnicity as the cause, may have been completely unrelated to race at all.

The grocery clerk who didn't smile at me might have suddenly had heartburn, or maybe something about the white person they'd just smiled at reminded them of a relative who'd passed away; it might have had nothing to do with the color of my skin.

But it often does in this country. I assure you that I could fill many blogs with descriptions of instances where it has.
 
So as the seminar began and I sat there listening to the attorney at the front of the room, I started to think that maybe I'd just read the incident at the desk wrong.

What if, I reasoned to myself, the woman at the desk had carefully checked off the name of every other person sitting there in the room? After all, I was the last to arrive before the seminar began, I wasn't there to watch how the woman interacted with every other person in the room.
 
Maybe she was just being thorough as the event was crowded and there was simply no room for walk-ins.

After all, I had seen the elderly Asian lady standing outside the door studying a brochure when I'd first come in. Perhaps she too had tried to take a seat and the woman behind the desk had called her over and told her the event was filled so they couldn't take walk-ins?

Maybe my thoughts said more about how I perceive myself than about how the woman treated me.

So about 20 minutes in I was cooling out, getting into the presentation and dutifully taking notes and my "racial antennae" were retracting back into my head when suddenly the front door opened.

The motion of movement caught my attention and I turned my head and watched as the young Indian woman I mentioned above walked in, looked around the room, then made her way across one of the rear rows of chairs and quietly took a seat.

Now of course, my antennae went right back up and I was waiting to see if the woman behind the desk would pounce on her too.

I immediately looked across the room at the woman behind the desk and she just sat there.

She made no move to beckon the young Indian woman who'd arrived late over to the desk to give her name; in fact she barely paid her any mind - she didn't give her "the hand" or come over with her notebook full of names to check her off.

And at that point, I honestly smiled. Seriously.

All of a sudden it struck me as funny and absurd. If she HAD called me over to the desk because I was black, it was silly and made no sense. And if she HADN'T  just called me over because I was black, then maybe my feeling singled out was silly and made no sense.

And that's when I thought about Lena Williams' book It's The Little Things and I remembered all the little ways that blacks and whites could annoy each other without realizing it.  

It had the affect of detaching me from my feelings. Here I was sitting in a seminar about wills, power of attorney and end of life decisions and I was alive and healthy and it was sunny out and I have a job - my ruffled feathers suddenly seemed so trivial and irrelevant.

A few minutes later an older white guy came in and sat down behind me and I almost laughed out loud.

I wanted to turn to him and smile and say, "Glad you made it."