I don’t trust that he sees Michael Jackson, or any black person, as a complex human being, with loves and fears and particular challenges because, to do so, would undermine white male supremacy and his career as a very vocal white man who defends that view in the media. To believe O’Reilly is to believe that, if you’re a “real” American, then you live beyond the constructs of race, class, gender, and sexuality, but we all know that the only people who can really afford to “transcend” these categories are the people to whom they don’t apply. And those people, who have inherited a system rigged in their favor, use such categories to try to shut down people who want access to the rights privileges that they have long enjoyed.

I’m waking up, and I know you are, too.