Black Americans are thinking for themselves...

I gasp a heavy sigh as I'm writing this. Unless you've been hiding out with Osama in a cave somewhere, I'm sure you've read or heard about Bill O'Reilly's latest idiotic gaffe. Apparently, FOX's favorite far-right winger had dinner with Al Sharpton at Harlem's iconic Sylvia's restaurant earlier this week. If you've never visited Harlem, Sylvia's is a popular soul food restaurant on Lenox Avenue (probably the most well-known soul food restaurant in the country) and has been there since 1962. Bill was so impressed with his Sylvia's experience that he decided to share it with his syndicated talk show audience. I'm not sure what black people Bill has been hanging around or maybe his only image of black America is from watching old Tarzan movies, or maybe he's watched Boyz n the Hood too many times... but he just couldn't fathom that dining at a black-owned restaurant patronized by predominantly black folks is like dining at any other restaurant in New York. "I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship," O'Reilly said. IMAGINE THAT? Can someone please tell him that the correct term is patronage not patronship? God only knows what his expectations were; for all we know he was probably wishing he would have donned a bullet-proof vest. He later told FOX news contributor Juan Williams, "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's screaming: MF-er, I want more tea." My guess is that he thinks Barack Obama is the only articulate black person walking around in America. He continued saying, "...they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." WOW! But, just when you think he couldn't say anything else stupid, he commented, "I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They're getting away from the Sharptons and the Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They're just trying to figure it out. 'Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.'' News flash Bill, this is 2007 not 1807. Perhaps someone can give him a crash course in "The Advancement of Black People 101." Any takers?