[Ed Dantes]

Bill O'Reilly (paraphrasing): People such as my grandmother used to be afraid of African-Americans for no good reason. But we've moved beyond that. I was eating dinner with Al Sharpton at a restaurant in Harlem, and it was just like eating at any Italian restaurant downtown. People were just acting normal -- they weren't going crazy there.

John Edwards (paraphrasing): We need to tell the President that building more prisons won't solve our crime problems. We can't just keep incarcerating, incarcerating... pretty soon, we won't have any young African-American males. They'll all just wind up in prison or are dead, one of the two.

[gymrat.chic]

Way to "keep it pithy"! (my favorite line of Bill O'Rielly)

[Fumblerooskies]

Why would EITHER be considered racist?

[SuperJon]

O'Reilly said nothing wrong.

[thepostman]

I don't like Bill one bit...but I don't think he is a racist...I don't know much about John Edwards...but that has racism written all over it

[Fumblerooskies]

What? Because as a percentage, African Americans are incarcerated more? I am not getting into all the profiling garbage...but the prison populations don't lie.

[Ed Dantes]

#1 -- My point for the comparison is that O'Reilly has been SKEWERED by the mainstream media for his comments, which aren't even racist!!! He's talking about how positive it is to see progress in race relations... and for John Edwards to say something FAR WORSE and not even get called on it... that's remarkable.

In 2005, there were 860,000+ thousand black males in college. There were 802,000 behind bars. So the statement about more blacks in prison than college is innacurate. Furthermore, when you talk about black men aged 18-24, for every one of them behind bars there are four more in college. The "black men are far more likely to commit crime than go to college" is a myth made by the media and race warlords, and perpetuated by racists like John Edwards.

(I know what the definition of racism is, by the way, to the point where I know that 95 percent of the time the term is used, it's used incorrectly. Racism is the belief that one race is genetically superior to an other. John's comments indicate that he believes, incorrectly, that African-Americans are nothing more than prison-bound gang-bangers. That's pretty racist to me.

From the WSJ:

"Does Edwards really mean that all young male blacks are criminals? Or is the idea that the purpose of the criminal justice system as currently constituted is to imprison young black men regardless of guilt?

Either view is plainly false. The former would be one of the most racist statements uttered by a major American politician in the past 40 years; the latter, one of the most irresponsibly demagogic."

[thepostman]

What? Because as a percentage, African Americans are incarcerated more? I am not getting into all the profiling garbage...but the prison populations don't lie.

pretty soon, we won't have any young African-American males. They'll all just wind up in prison or are dead, one of the two.

that is pretty much saying all young black males will end up in prison, and the ones that won't will be killed first....that is so racist its not even funny....and I am not someone that jumps on the race card very quickly...

[Realist]

What is with this site and jumping on the race card so quickly? Someone called me a racist simply b/c I said I didn't think America would elect a woman or black president a week ago. I think you guys are either a little too high strung on the race thing yourself, or either just so anti-liberal you'll jump on anything.

[El Scorcho]

What is with this site and jumping on the race card so quickly? Someone called me a racist simply b/c I said I didn't think America would elect a woman or black president a week ago. I think you guys are either a little too high strung on the race thing yourself, or either just so anti-liberal you'll jump on anything.

We didn't start this mess. In case you hadn't noticed, this is all over the media at the national level right now.

[LUconn]

What is with this site and jumping on the race card so quickly? Someone called me a racist simply b/c I said I didn't think America would elect a woman or black president a week ago. I think you guys are either a little too high strung on the race thing yourself, or either just so anti-liberal you'll jump on anything.

That was actually one of the few liberal guys in this board that snapped at you for saying that, if I recall. Although, I was called a racist last year by some folks here. But in all fairness, I could see how my comment could have been misunderstood for something that was.

[Fumblerooskies]

I get your point, Ed...well said.

[Realist]

What is with this site and jumping on the race card so quickly? Someone called me a racist simply b/c I said I didn't think America would elect a woman or black president a week ago. I think you guys are either a little too high strung on the race thing yourself, or either just so anti-liberal you'll jump on anything.

We didn't start this mess. In case you hadn't noticed, this is all over the media at the national level right now.

Had no idea, I was out of town for business until last night and didn't keep up with the news.