Prom Night – All White (Bill O'Reilly) The No Spin Zone

washingtondispatch ^ | May 10, 2003 | Bill O'Reilly

[TLBSHOW]

Prom Night – All White

The No Spin Zone by Bill O'Reilly

May 10, 2003

Put yourself in the shoes of a 17-year-old black student at Taylor County High School in Butler, Ga., about 150 miles south of Atlanta. For weeks you watch the news and see an integrated American military machine take apart Saddam Hussein's regime. You read on the BlackAmerica Web site that about 18 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq were African-American. You see the country celebrating a great victory and waving the flags of patriotism.

Then you come to school and find out some students in your class are holding an all-white prom.

How would you react if you were that kid? You can't sue because the event is being held off-campus. It's a private party, and no person of color is welcome. Yet the party is being held under the banner of Taylor High's junior prom. Yes, there is an alternative prom where everyone is welcome, but still a number of your classmates do not want to celebrate with you.

The night the all-white prom happened, May 2, I sent a producer and camera crew to interview the all-white partygoers. Guess what? None of them would talk to us. Neither would the adults who chaperoned the event. But the students did express themselves in another way -- they made a wide variety of obscene gestures in front of the camera.

Now, this white prom nonsense is a small story on the landscape of America. But what is not a small story is the way the powers that be in Georgia reacted. The principal of Taylor High, Bonnie Branan, would not comment publicly. The superintendent of schools, Wayne Smith, told me the prom was legal and that's that. And the governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, sent his press secretary out to say he was "disappointed" in the event.

But Perdue would not answer questions or condemn the prom. His spokeswoman says he is too busy. In reality, he is hiding.

So if I'm a 17-year-old black student, I am getting the message. Nobody in power is on my side. Nobody is willing to state that a segregated school event in the year 2003 is unacceptable behavior. Nobody really cares.

Stunningly, some people criticized me for even talking about the story. The rationalizations came so fast I thought I was playing goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers. "Blacks have private events, too." "How dare you criticize the governor, he doesn't answer to you." "You are anti-South!"

The issue, of course, was never addressed. So here it is in black and white: Holding an event organized within a public school that excludes students on the basis of skin color, ethnicity, religion or any other defining characteristic is cruel, un-American, and should be condemned by all responsible public officials, including teachers and administrators. Got it?

Here's what I don't get. What is it about the UNITED States that folks don't understand? United means we are all in this together. The killers on 9-11 were after Americans of all colors. The soldiers who are defending us against those killers and their enablers are all colors. So why are we dancing around this prom issue?

Americans who love their country will speak out against injustice and cruelty to fellow citizens, especially children and teenagers. That 17-year-old black student at Taylor High has been taught a lesson that will stay with him the rest of his life. And that lesson is that skin color can disqualify you from attending a social event. The night of that all-white prom was, indeed, a rainy night in Georgia.

[krb]

You read on the BlackAmerica Web site ...

Interesting.

[annyokie]

I'm getting seriously concerned about Bill O'Reilly's opinions. Talk about minutiae.

[clintonh8r]

Bill can't let go of it, can he?

[TomGuy]

O'Reilly's obsessed with this prom.

Even after Neal Boortz cleaned his clock with the hubcap incident comment, O'Reilly won't turn this topic loose.

Even after the poll O'Reilly was running just happened to not turn out like he wanted, so he tossed out the results, O'Reilly won't let this go.

He spent 3 consecutive evenings rehashing.

Bill, let it go. You don't have all the facts and you're responses have been based on your being ill-informed.

[joesnuffy]

will this be on the all black tv channel...on soul train...or will Miss Black America attend?
will the grads get to go to Gramlin on a scholarship from the united negro college fund?

[ImpotentRage]

I haven't anything about the Black Only Proms that have been cropping up the past few years - high school and college. Too bad on BOTH sides.

[SauronOfMordor]

It's a private party, hosted and paid for by private individuals. If they just want to invite left-handed Lithuanians, then that is their right

[ErnBatavia]

"The My Spin Zone"...

[eddie willers]

[annyokie]

LOL! No kidding! What a pompous ass he has become!

[tuckrdout]

I am with O'Reilly on this one! What a disgrace to the south.

But, I have to say, that many of the school dances and proms in High School these days turn into urban rap events, that a lot of kids don't like. There needs to be a balance and schools are not doing enough to integrate black kids into other cultures. To help them to appreciate the culture of the other kids in their school.

The schools do everything they can to promote "black culture" and in the process many kids feel left out. I don't know, but I think this prom thing my be a reflection of those feelings.

[steve in DC]

How does O'Reilly feel about the Congressional Black Caucus?

[Porterville]

Bill trying to pander to the minority's especially blacks because his radio show is failing. I agree with him, but he is holding his own pagentry event, dressing his language up like a sixteen year old girl at a prom, "Look at me everyone, I'm Bill O'Reilly, I'm not racist, see I took on big, bad, high school students and told them, 'you're wrong, bad little high school students, bad'."

Bill O'Reilly is just an opportunist who (I'm sure) was counting on Rush retiring when he began loosing his hearing. For an ego maniac like Bill, it's not the left that is the bane of his existence, it is Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

[Just mythoughts]

Poor, poor, poor, Bill can't get no respect. The Governor snubbed him, what nerve.

Bill has never said who complained to him about this prom party, yet there are laws on the books that gives extra credit to one if their skin color is not white.

Were all the white kids at the school invited?

Oh Bill keeps pushing this and he has no idea what kind of can of worms he is opening up. One could say there are toooooooooooo many whites faces on the tube and demand a few get removed. How would old Bill like to be told he can't be on tv any more cause tooooooo many white faces?

[krb]

What is the Boortz hubcap incident?

[TomGuy]

'Reilly

[B Knotts]

Boortz pointed out that O'Hubcap is only harping on this to deflect from his own racial insensitivity. He (O'Reilly) recently made a personal appearance in Florida with a primarily black youth group. When some of the youths were late arriving, O'Reilly joked that he hoped they weren't "out in the parking lot stealing my hubcaps."

[doc30]

What really bothers me about this is that O'Rielly is racist. He holds whites to one standard and blacks to a lower one. Blacks can have as many black-only events they want and he raises no objection, but if whites do it, a cardinal sin has been committed. Personally, both are reprehensible, but this country still has freedom of association.

[Yeti]

Guess what? None of them would talk to us

Gee, Bill, I wonder why....

They must've had the mistaken impression you were there to do a smear piece on them or something.