Bill O'Reilly: His 5 Most Shockingly Offensive Moments

5. Hawaii

Big Bill's always been a bit dodgy when it comes to race. During the seventeen year run of his show (although it was The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998) he has asked when African-Americans will "reject immorality," used the term "wetbacks" to describe Mexicans, suggested that Africa and "fundamental Islam" were too backward to accept "Western reasoning," and joked that "the most unattractive women in the world are probably in the Muslim countries." Most recently he has posited the notion that the White House is deliberately skewing the economy by giving free stuff to people of colour who don't want to work. Prompted by President Obama's visit to America's 50th State for a family holiday, O'Reilly devoted a segment of his show to the analysis of Hawaii's rampant liberalism (almost 70% of those eligible voted for the President in the last election) and its social and economic impact. Bill and correspondent Jesse Watters discussed some of the problems facing the country such as drug addiction, homelessness and the massive budget deficit. €œYou know what€™s shocking?€ O€™Reilly said. €œThirty-five percent of the Hawaiian population is Asian, and Asian people are not liberal by nature. They€™re usually more industrious and hard-working... The White population is only 25%.€ Stereotype much, Bill? The man is oblivious to the fact that ascribing a narrow selection of characteristics to a diverse community is condescending and patronising at best and casually racist at worst. A few days later Colleen Hanabusa, U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 1st congressional district, went on the show to ask Bill for an apology for his glib and offensive generalisation and to point out that, actually, being hard-working and industrious is entirely compatible with holding liberal political views. By extension Colleen wanted to refute the suggestion that liberalism equates to being lazy and indolent. Bill, in the sensitive manner for which he's well known, cut Colleen short and berated her for taking his words out of context before castigating her country's legislation on drugs and child rape. Classy.