Fox News host unbelievably tells African-American representative to "step away from the crack pipe"
By EJ DicksonFebruary 16th, 2012, 4:30 pmComments (16)When someone asks you if Fox News is stupid and offensive, nine times out of ten your automatic response is, "Is the Pope Catholic?" or "Do bears shit in the woods?" or "Does the Pope shit in the woods?" Every once in a while, however, a Fox News correspondent will say something so mind-blowingly stupid and offensive that you are momentarily rendered incapable of speech and thought.
With that said, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to use human language to recount what Fox and Friends host Eric Bolling said about Rep. Maxine Waters Thursday morning. But basically, the folks over at Fox and Friends were sitting around, having their regular cup of morning bile dashed with a shot of hatred, when the conversation turned to Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.), who recently angered some on the right for describing House Republican leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner as "demons."
Not content with merely being seen as a low-rent, assbag Dan Marino lookalike, Bolling decided to take steps toward achieving "racist low-rent assbag Dan Marino" status by remarking, "Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston. Step away from the crack pipe, step away from the Xanax, step away from the Lorazepam because it's going to get you in trouble."
Of course, there is no discernible reason why Bolling would tell Waters to "step away" from these drugs, other than that his understanding of people of color probably stems from that one time he saw a Spike Lee movie in college, once, so naturally Bolling's co-hosts were shocked by his comments. One of them remarked, "She's not using drugs." To which Bolling replied, "How else do you explain those comments?" Which is like the "I know you are, but what am I?" defense for racists who've realized they just said something racist.
After the commercial break, Bolling apologized for his remarks, stating, "I just want to say I was kidding about the crack pipe," but keep in mind he used this same excuse when he said, "It's not the first time he's had a hoodlum in the hizzouse" when President Obama invited the president of Gabon over for dinner, then showed a photo of former White House guest/rapper Common. Clearly, dude has a stellar sense of humor, so if he ends up losing his job, he'll always have a gig as a stand-up comic for Stormfront conventions.
Commentarium (16 Comments)
So, couple of ways to approach this...
For starters, she actually started it by calling other representatives names. However, while the shit that comes out of Fox "reporters" never surprises me, they should know better that to do something this stupid. What I fail to see is the "racist" part of this argument. Sure, it's easy to say that African-Americans and crack have a long history, hence the offense... but saying that is just as offensive as what you're claiming this guy did.
Basically, we can all agree that saying that to anybody would be pretty offensive, no matter to whom it was aimed.
I laughed at this headline. Did one of those stones you are throwing get you?
Eric Bolling isn't a reporter and has never been described as such.
Rational discourse and the basics of objective reporting from Journalism 101 seem to have gone the way of the dodo in the post-Clinton era.
Why is Ms. Water's comment any less offensive than Bolling's? Why is Hooksexup not taking her to task for her behavior as much as Bollings?
Because there is no history in this country of successful, white men being discriminated against. Because "demon," while insulting, has no racial connotation. The references to Whitney Houston and to a crack pipe plainly implicated Waters' race and negative stereotypes about it. Waters' and Bolling's respective remarks are not similar or equivalent. Waters' was insulting. Bolling's is racist.
What does an offensive comment have to do with historical discrimination? Once again, robert proves he lacks even the most basic discernment. The "negative stereotype" was used against Herman Cain but no one had a problem with that, eh?
Bolling a racist? Keep pretending, dumbass.
Another Hooksexup Fail. There was absolutely nothing racist about his comments. Since when are Xanax and Lorazepam a black thing? Have none of you ever said "WTF are you doing, smoking crack?" when someone else did or said something stupendously stupid?
Just another lame, inappropriate and non-applicable pinning of the "racist" label on a conservative.
Agreed. He's not racist, he's just not funny.
America is just so busy being proud of not being racist, that we can't move past racism altogether.
It's probably racist, but it is definitely sexist. Why is that being ignored? She isn't just a black person, she's a black woman.
People are pretty naive if they don't see this as racist (and sexist, Rj, but in a way that's difficult to extricate from racism). Could you imagine this "Don't end up like Whitney, gurl" line being used on a white male? The idea is just kind of preposterous. It wouldn't happen. Maybe just the "crack pipe" bit without the larger "you saw what happened to Whitney" comment, but you can't just decontextualize it.
Yes we can go to Media Matters web site and read paranoia about Faux News on our own. I come here for more interesting stuff.
This headline is seriously fucked. It would function just as well without "African-American" and with the inclusion of the other drugs he suggested she was on, and in fact by labeling it as "Fox News host unbelievably tells African-American representative to "step away from the crack pipe" you're being somewhat racially prejudiced yourself. You seem to be suggesting that the comment is offensive because black people do crack more than white people and you assume the host is referring to this. By drawing that conclusion and by attempting to convey it through the headline, you reveal your own internalized associations between this particlar drug and this particular race. That is wrong.
Here's why what he said is racist: Whitney Houston was a black woman and so is this representative. The guy is insinuating (jokingly) that because they share a race and gender they are involved in the same things.
Here's why the headline gets it wrong: Whitney Houston did crack and Xanax and lorazepam. His comparison of these two women may stem from their shared race, but it is still a specific person-to-person comparison, as indicated by the other drugs he listed. However, I would be remiss if i didn't note that i suspect his addition of the prescription medications was probably an on-the-spot attempt to avoid this type of headline. Regardless of his intent, though, he avoided saying that Rep. Waters was acting crazy because she was black and black women do crack. That would be a racial stereotype. What he DID say was a joke, admittedly in poor taste, based on current events and known factual information about the life of a celebrity, NOT a race-wide stereotype.
Anybody who doesn't think this is racist is most likely protecting their own racist tendencies. His comparison between whitney houston and her was clearly racist simply by their common race being judged as a fair comparison point. Then the extrapolation that given they're both black they're both likely to be using drugs, and the threat implicit in "you saw what happened to whitney houston". Combined with the history of these prejudicial ideas which the comment is built on, which itself lends people to buy into this hatred and this hatred lends people to buy into it.
No, anyone describing this as racist is likely racist. You, Wtf, are an unrepetant racist and you should be ashamed of yourself. I particularly found your "whitey houston" comment offensive.
I only hope that Barack Obama is elected President so we can move beyond this hate.
i don't know about racist but dan marino is probably not that happy.
Nothing racist whatsoever about this. I personally think it's extremely racist to make the connection!
Does Hooksexup think that crack is somehow exclusive to blacks?
I've often said, "Are you smoking crack?!" to white friends. Never in a million years would I take that as a racist comment, and IMHO someone's mind has to be in the racial gutter to make this connection.
Now you say something