Academic

Bill O?Reilly? OK Fine, I?ll Talk about it

By Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

Yes, I was the “crazy black professor” featured as the lead story on The O’Reilly Factor last night.  My sister, who studies at The Mayo Clinic, called to tell me about it. Yes, O’Reilly did the whole “That black man is crazy” routine. Yes, my inbox was full of email from people who are dumb enough to pay attention to Bill O’Reilly.  Yes, Sean Hannity has been after me also.  In other words, life as usual. 

I felt the need to protect my poor chancellor, for I hated seeing her getting chased around by the cameramen who wanted to ask her about this guy named “Boyce Watkins”. She is a good woman, and she didn’t ask to have such a big mouth on her campus. Curing the disease of racism is a nasty, scary process, and not everyone is ready for the backlash from a country that remains ignorant and in denial.  I honestly don’t like causing trouble.  I just can’t live a lie.  Everyone knows clearly that America has a horrible race problem.  My friends in Europe are shocked that someone like Bill O’Reilly can have so many viewers in the first place.  The mere existence of O’Reilly is a testament to the racially sick state of our nation. 

So, I prepared a standard email response for the wealthy alums who don’t want to give money to a university with a “racist” on their campus.  I’ve been preparing for this since I was a child, since I have always known that focused, educated black men are quite threatening to many people.

I expect O’Reilly will keep pouting and striking at me for the rest of the week, since our boycott of Fox’s corporate sponsors is going quite well.  I found that the pain I felt watching the right wing orchestrated attacks on Senator Obama and Pastor Wright was actually shared by hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

OK, here’s the message for all to see.  I’m done with this issue for now.

O’reilly and others are nothing new to America. For the past 400 years, there have been those who fight against racism and those who work to oppress those individuals. Terms like “reverse racist” or “black racist” are designed to alleviate America of the guilt of what it has done to every black man woman and child for the past 400 years. Our country has not even apologized, nor taken personal responsibility for the damage done by slavery. 400 years of continued, terroristic destruction doesn’t go away with 20 years of Affirmative action.

O’Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh are in the same tradition as those who killed Dr. King and Malcolm X. Unfortunately, such individuals and those who support them are always on the wrong side of history. But it is safe to stand with them because they tend to have the most power. I don’t expect that any piece of my contribution to Syracuse University will be recognized today. Rather, it will be acknowledged 30 years from today, the same as that of Jim Brown and the 8 black students who protested racism on the football field. The pattern is: punish now, ostracize now, and apologize when the person is old and gray. I accept that.

Do not hold Chancellor Cantor responsible for my words. I speak on my own behalf. The Chancellor is an amazing and capable human being who has brought wonderful intellectual light to the university and to this country. I even feel sorry for the headaches I cause her from my viewpoints. I cannot apologize however, because there are tens of thousands of voiceless Americans who agree with me.

I refuse to stand silent as Jeremiah Wright, an ex-Marine, scholar and accomplished human being, is reduced to a worthless hack by those who don’t even have the guts to fight in the very same wars they promote.

Syracuse’s business school, to my knowledge, has not tenured a black man in over 100 years, and I do not expect to be the first. So don’t worry, I don’t anticipate you’re going to have to deal with me for much longer. But I am going to keep telling the truth, for I do believe the truth sets you free.

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Full post as published by BlackProf on May 12, 2008 (boomark / email).