http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGvv8ygLKQc
On Wednesday’s O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly fact-checked comedian Jon Stewart’s recent claims about “white privilege.”
During a recent episode of The Daily Show, Stewart and O’Reilly argued over the existence of white privilege. O’Reilly had previously dismissed the idea of white privilege as a “fantasy.” Stewart disagreed.
In a clip shown on The O’Reilly Factor, Stewart cited the fact that Levittown, New York, where O’Reilly grew up, was closed to African-Americans. “So that, my friend, is what we call in the business, ‘white privilege,'” Stewart said.
“That was in 1950, all right?” O’Reilly shot back.
Back in studio, O’Reilly turned to Fox News anchor Eric Shawn and asked him to explain the history of Levittown.
According to Shawn, there was a covenant, backed by the Federal Housing Administration in the lease of the house owned by O’Reilly’s parents that stated that it could only be used by Caucasians. He also noted that Levittown’s builder, William Levitt, had a deed that read that it could only be used by “the Caucasian race.”
That changed, but not significantly, by the mid-1950’s, according to Shawn. By 1960, out of 15,000 homes in Levittown, only 15 were owned by African-Americans. By 1968, the Fair Housing Act was passed and it was against federal law to discriminate on the basis of race.
Then, O’Reilly recounted his own experience with growing up in Levittown.
“Trust me, it was a good place to grow up, because there were a lot of kids, but there wasn’t any privilege involved in growing up there,” he said. “And black, on Long Island, lived in places like Hempstead, in Westbury. Some of those neighborhoods were good and some of them weren’t.”
O’Reilly concluded: “We have to give Stewart props for-–history, right. But white privilege extending out, wrong.”