Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has some ideas as to how the White House can improve its My Brother’s Keeper initiative, namely by encouraging “gangstaaa rappers” like Jay-Z and Kanye West to stop promoting the “gangsta” lifestyle.
Speaking about President Barack Obama’s initiative, which launched Thursday, on the “O’Reilly Factor,” the host told White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett the White House should enlist the help of prominent rappers to keep young African-American and Hispanic men on track.
“You’re going to have to get people like Jay-Z, Kanye West, all of these gangsta rappers, to knock it off. That’s number one,” O’Reilly said Thursday night. “You gotta get where they live. They idolize these guys with the hats on backwards and the terrible rap lyrics and the drugs and all of that. You gotta get these guys. And I think President Obama can do it.”
O’Reilly advised Jarrett to put “tattoo guys” and athletes like NBA star Magic Johnson, a “good guy,” on television to tell young men of color to “knock it off.”
“You’ve got to get them in there to tell these kids that you’ve got to stop the disruptive behavior or you’re going to wind up in a morgue or in prison,” the Fox News host said.
Jarrett, however, fought back against O’Reilly, telling him he underestimated young African-American men.
“I think when the President of the United States looks at you and he says, ‘I believe in you,’ and that ‘I was just like you and you can be just like me.’ That’s the perfect role model,” the president’s senior adviser said.
O’Reilly also had a request for First Lady Michelle Obama, specifically. The Fox News host said the First Lady should come on his show and address young women.
“Right here. I want Michelle Obama to look into that camera and say, ‘You teenage girls, you stop having sex. You stop getting pregnant. This is wrong,'” O’Reilly said.
Jarrett contested, saying it was better for the First Lady to meet with young girls one-on-one, as she does through her mentorship program.
O’Reilly, though, said going on Fox News would reach many more people, as his Super Bowl interview with President Obama did.
“You’re not getting gritty enough,” he said.
The president’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative directs resources from the federal government to programs that have a proven track record of helping young men of color succeed.
Watch O’Reilly’s interview with Jarrett below.
h/t Mediaite
